CBM 8-Bit Magazine Index: Commodore World

MAAN
AUTH
HN

NNN i m Th ih > <2 iF yi ft mn

The 4 7 t i b>, o¢ Sa ide ‘iy i We - m " si lig
AN ag ty ee HN) WA
, 4 superce

Mt i Mii IN

NN
SY
HI Hh
! WUT

JOIN THE

COMMOD |
ON-LINE FAMILY

i | & Special Events

ope aam
d WA MH

Access

i ih

ANU)
: i), ¢-64/c128 |
Basic Genie es & Suppor,
Serv a Deer

ENN
'

Voice Assistance 1-800-638-9636

How to log on: Terminal Program Configuration:
~ Dial 1-800-638-8369 300/1200/2400 baud
% Upon connect, type |/iHHIHT Terminal Emulation: ASCII or VT100
~ At prompt U#=, type s7GNU 2ETURN Half Duplex/Local Echo ON
8N1 (8 data bits, 1 stop bit, NO Parity)

Answer questions and follow the on-line instructions to complete initial sign-on
TULA VUTURVNTTOTTTRVTTURVTTT Ue Pst Perea gure ccena oper vtay ene te

ic -.0y oN

ISSUE 18

N 7

DECEMBER 1996/JANUARY 1997

COMMODORE | Fe4stTurRes

WORLD

‘THE NEWS MAGAZINE FOR COMMODORE 64 8 120 USERS

Generat Manacer
Charles R, Christianson
a4
Eoiror
Doug Cotton

Assistant Eprtor
Kimberly A. McCoubrey
°
ApverrisinG Sates
Charles A, Christianson
(413) 525-0023
°
Graptic Arts
Doug Cotton
Kimberly A. MeCoubrey
°
Etectronic Pre-Press & PrinTING
Mansir/Holden
°
Cover Design by Doug Cotton
&
Kimberly A. McCoubrey

‘Commodore™ and the respective Gommodore product names
are trademarks of registered trademarks of Escom GmbH.
Commodore World is in no way affiliated with Escom GmbH.

‘owner of the Commodare logo and technology. Commodore
Worldis published 8 times annually by Creative Micro Designs,
Inc., 15 Benton Drive, East Longmeadow MA 01028-0646.
‘Second-Class Postage Paid at East Longmeadow MA. Annual
‘subscription rate is USS29.95 for U.S. addresses, USS35.95
for Canada or Mexico, USS45.95 for all EC Countries, and
US$57.95 to all other addresses worldwide. All subscription
payments must bo provided in U.S. Dollars. Mail subscriptions.
to CW Subscriptions, c/o Creative Micto Designs, Inc., P.O,

Box 646, East Longmeadow MA 01028-0646

tive Micro
jo part of this
may be printed or otherwise reproduced by any
moans without prior written consent from the publisher. All
programs published in this publication are for the personal use
of the reader, and may not be copied or in any way distributed.
Allrights reserved, Programming examples and routines in this
‘issue which are presented for educational purposes may be
used In the creation of programs by the purchaser of this
magazine, provided credit for the routines is clearly presented
in either the program documentation, or the program itself
Creative Micro Designs, Inc., assumes no responsibility for
errors or omissions in editorial, program listings or advertising
content. Creative Micro Designs, Inc. assumes no liability for
advertisers claims or reliability.

contents copyright © 1997 by C1

POSTMASTER: Send address changos to: CW Address:
Changos, c/o Creative Micro Designs, Inc., P.O, Box 646, East
Longmeadow MA 01028-0646.

10
18
14

Do Chickens Eat AppLes? py Anthony Cote

An interesting perspective on the success of Commodore.
Sreciat Report: SuperCPU Uppate by Doug Conon
What's the status of the SuperCPU 128?

Commopore Drives Are History: Part Il by Jim Brain
Reach back in time with this historical follow-up.

Reviews

26
28

GAMES by Jason Compton and Sherry Freedline
McRat, The

LoapStar’s Compueat Crossword by Jason Compton
If you enjoy being pu:

Coctumns

22
30
32
36
38
42
44
48

Just For STARTERS by Jason Compton

A SuperCPU primer for beginners.

GRAPHIC INTERPRETATION by Paul Sullivan

DualTop: An Alternative DeskTop

Carrier DETECT hy Gaelyne R. Gasson

Find out how to make effective Internet searches.
GEOPROGRAMMIST by Maurice Randall

Learn to avoid some common GEOS programming pitfalls.
Assempty LINE by Jim Butterfield

Simple numerical input in machine language

PERIPHERAL VISION by Jim Butterfield

An in-depth look at how the Commodore ke
Basic INSTINCTS by David Pankhurst
Programming tips and more!

816 BEAT by Doug Cotton

Speedy division iy breeze on the 65816.

DeEraRnTMeENTS
2 From tHe Eoitor 8 Conmopore Trivia
4 BackTauk 48 Cuassiried Aos
6 On Tie Horizon 48 Aoverriser’s INDEX

board operates.

nj Complex, Jordan vs. Bird: One on One, and Karnov.

ed, this LoadStar offering may be just for you.

See Our NEW
CHECKSUM

Utility
On Page 41

COMMODORE WORLD

Once again we've crossed that boudry that divides the old year from the
new, And to the amazement of many of our contemporaries, we're still
using our trusty Commodore computers. Some are writing letters, some
are tracking stocks, others are just playing games. But all have one thing
incommon... that familiar old electronicfriend that has kept us company
all these years. And that friend continues to help us with our work, and
entertaines us when work is the last thing on our minds.

Fifteen years after the introduction of the Commodore 64, and there's
still a large following—despite the availability of systems running at
clock speeds 200 times greater, and with RAM and hard disk storage
that once would have made any reasonable hardware designer dizzy.
The fact that we are still using our ‘dinosaurs’ says a lot about the
endurance and effectiveness of a simple design.

Yet, we haven't all survived this long without some level of upgrading
to our systems. Long ago, this meant replacing a tape drive with a disk
drive, or getting a monitor so that we could stop tying up the television.
Later it meant getting a cartridge or other hardware to help speed up disk
access, buying a 3.5-inch disk drive, adding a RAM expander, and
eventually, perhaps even a hard drive,

The pastyear has brought us a new enhancement: the SuperCPU, now
pushing processing speed on our Commodore computers to previously
impossible new highs, And the year just beginning promises to bring us
more innovations, like the Turbo232 modem interface, the SuperCPU
RAMexpander, and the SuperCPU 128—all discussed elsewhere in this
issue of Commodore World, Major new software releases are also
planned, aswell as updated versions of programs like Novaterm, geoFAX,
and even Desterm 128.

As we have done in the past two and a halfyears, Commodore World
will continue to bring you news and details of these new releases, and
strive to make your Commodore experience as fulfilling as possible.

Happy New Year!

Doug Cotton
-Editor

Issue 18

CANE] Games Disk! The Compleat Jon: 1: Games! the
whole gamut of gaming is covered hore: artificial intelligence,
role-playing, mazes, fantasy, selance fiction, aducation and
jeven non-violence (which was a radical concept in its time).
These eleven peries are among the best ever published on

Listed on the manu in chronologeeal order, 80
you can see how Jon's style changed as the:
1581 disk 002103 $20, 1541 dis}

WA y207 Puzzle dist
The Compleat Crossword: evory

crossword puzzle published in, Puzzlo Page in ong huge
[collection! 220 puzzles! It usos Barbara Schulak’s CRUCIVERBALIST program to prosont the
puzzles and allows you to "mark" a puzzle when it’s solved so that you know which you've
solved and which you haven't yot. Each 1541 disk contains 110 puzzles, 1581 Disk #002003
$20. Disk 1 (1541) #003605 $10.Disk 2 (1541) #003705 $10

W Evy 6-128 Productivity! The Compleat Lee O: si!
Lee O. Clinton's best serious programs for the C-128 80- column mode. Finance, auto]

lexpense, kitchen helper, genealogy, resume writing, mutual funds! One 1541 disk #003205.
(One 1581 disk #001703 $10.00

ars rolled by.
#003805 $20

VW New Word Search! Super Star Search 1: 200 original word)
Isearch puzzles by Stevon Thomas and Art Dudley, presented
jand click program. One 1541 disk #0011D5 One 1581 disk

VW new Story disk! The Compleat Prosequest '95:
contest on i. inctuding
01903 ‘$5.00

‘se

John Serafino's modern point
103 $20.00

NEW!!! A 1541 disk with all of the entries in the 1995 short story
the three grand winners. One 1541 disk #0035D5 One 1581 disk

Soft Wear! LOADSTAR T-Shirts: cimites

ledition Fruit Of The Loom T-shirts, LOADSTAR’s nemesis, Knees

[Calhoon, stands up to regular washing and drying. Where else can|

you find Commodore agparel? 50» Cotton!/Polyester. $15.00 each

Iwith ievs shipping! Small #960025, Medium #960125, Large
XLarge 125, XX-L #960425,

Tools! Tutorials! The Compleat

TAMMET: Bost soller! Over Two megabytes of (
crammed and stutted onto eight 5.25-inch disks or two

\ Plus tools, extensions, languages, assemblers, {uorials and utlties! 6.25 set
14000505. 3.5-inch disk #000503. For $5 more, get C- Hacking MAG #000603 (on 3.5-inch
disks only and NOT available separately) to complete
lyour programming set. $20.00

5! Compleat PS Vol. 1

(The Print Shop by Broderbund or Printmaster required).
fer 1900 artistic and never before published PRINT SHOP

jimages. Scan through the many PRINT SHOP images

!soquontially, by name, or by group number. Pross a key and

Isave tho graphic you want in 2-block, 3-block and even

IPRINTMASTER graphic files! All at plus a printed guide!

Each volume is $20,00. Vol. 1: C-64/128 3.5-inch disk Item

#000143. 5.25-inch disks item #000905. Vol. 2 (graphics trom past LS Issues): C-64/128

3.5-inch disk item #000243. 5.25-inch disks item #001005.

1581 disi

_QTY_ Description _ Item # Price ea. Total_

ewan
GEOS Clipart
TOADSTAR presonts te biggest Goo
OROSTAR ae sales earn nara on
ae cr dks or ogi Ss noha Meat ote
appropriate gerne = every time! Prices are $20)

1-800-594-3970 or 1-318-221-8718 to order by|
redit card. Or send check or monoy ordor and
ty (by LG number) which disks you want,

| 5.25-INCH DISKS |

Disk 01 - RAILS: Railroad art trom Europe!
jand the USA #001205,

Disk 02 - VEHICLES/TAROT: Anwork of of
ind now autos; oxcollent geoPaint drawings of tho}
Tarot card sot #0013D5

Disk 03 - CLIP ART: includes converted
jacPaint tiles that have never before deen|
wallable in Commodore format #001405

(Disk 04 - OTTOWA/PRIME CLIPS: Artwork
of the main landmarks of Ottawa; plus high quali
public domain clip art #00155

(Disk 05 - FONTS: Moro than 30 fonts from past
issues of LOADSTAR, plus articles (in geoWrite
format) on creating fonts. Also two ready-mado}
yoaders for use with your own documents, one a

picture of a mail truck; the other reading FROM}
HE DESK OF #0016D5

Disk 06, Disk 07. and Disk 08 - gooPaint and}

Photo Album files with the great clip artwork
featured on past LOADSTARS - Includes!
eoCurmudgoon, Anamalia | and Il, Australia
nimals, Valentine art and many more #00175,
001805, #001905

Disk 09 - GOODYKOONTZ FILES - Jasper
;oodykoontz, born in Indiana in 1855, produced]
joodykoontz's Perpetual Calendar and General
jeterence Manual (A Book for the Millions). This

pf subjects - Gestures and Attitudes, Poultry,
raniology, and more. #002005,

ick Estel's FAD Software - mostly woodcut style
ft of the old wost, gold rush days and pioneer
ones, #0021D5

Disiiulla Card Garnes!

ith a wide variety of
subject matter and
atorials. Disk contains

{canned into gooPaint format
[Sido 2 is a collection of scannod

rtwork of animals trom FRO
Software #0022D5,

Years, Valentino's, St. Patrick’s Day,
fallowoen, Thanksgiving and Christmas
002305

Disk 13 - PEOPLE/FACES: Sconos of pooplo|
jand faces trom FRO Software #0024D5,

Disk 14 - FRD CLASSICS: Dick's choice of
he best of the FD collection #0025D5

Disk 15 - DINOS/CLASSICS: Dinosaurs and]
other prohistoric beasts, as wall as more tirst
noice artwork from FRO, #0O26D5

Disk 16 - SPORTS/MISC: Dozens of sports.
elated clips #002705,

(Disk 17 - OFFICE AND SCHOOL: Ciips to}
bbe used at work and around the house #0028D5

Disk 18 -MUSIC & MORE SCHOO!

Disk 19 - SEASONAL AND HOLIDAYS: A
ip for any cecasion #0030D5

Disk 20 - SEASONAL AND HOLIDAYS:

quals disks 1, 2, 4B #0009D3
Disk 2: Equals disks 3, 6, 7A #0010D3
disks 5, 8, 7B #0011D3
quals 9, 10, 11A #001203
Disk 5: Equals 12, 13, 11B #001303
Disk 6: Equivalent of Disks 14, 15and
0 bonus files not on 5.25" disks #0014D3,
Disk 7: Sports, Office and school, Musi

Disk 8: Music, Holiday and Seasonal
01603

For your convenience, GeoViewer is|

included on each volume, GEOS 2.0 is}
suggested,

The Compleat Maurice: a compilation ot 26

solitaire card games written by Maurice Jones. the acknowledged master of card game simulations for
the C-64/128. There's even a brand new, never bolore published game called Boomerang, Two 5.25|
inch disks #000705 or one 3.5 inch disk #000703. $20.00 postage paid!

Oodles OF Stunning Art! Tutor

! The Compleat Wal

During LOADSTAR's first ton years we have published 24 of Walt Hamod's slideshows and multimedia|
‘events. Now we've gathered thom into one huge collection; seven 5.25 inch disks or three 3,5 inch.

disks! There are over 250 pictures, inci

fing some that have novor been published. The greatest ono-

‘man collection of art on any computer platform. 5.25-Inch disks order #070425 3.5-inch disks order:

#070423. $20.00 postage paid!

Name
Address

a

Total Enclosed:

State

Loadstar Order form = 1-800-594-3370

Postal Code

Q Check/money order made payable to “Loadstar" in US Funds

QO MasterCard 1 Visa

Card #___

CO American Express

Authorized sig
Subscribers: I prefer 1 5.25-inch diskettes

O) Discover

ature: _
O) 3.5-inch diskettes

LOADSTAR

P.O. Box 30008, Shreveport, LA 71130-0008
Questions: 1-318-221-8718 Fax 1-318-221-8870

sa a i a elas ata neers

3 COMMODORE WORLD

ge orders

Use extra sheet of paper for

Lasse eR

December 1996/January 1997

GJACKTALK

LETTERS AND QUESTIONS FROM OUR READERS

GEOS Printing Utility

Ina recent Graphic Interpretation column the
author talks about GEOS print programs that
allow using a printer's internal fonts. I'd like to
contact the author to ask ifhe might be willing to
Email me one of these. Can you provide his Email
address?

Also, it would be helpful if references to
programs in articles like this were accompanied
by information indicating their location on the
web. Also Commodore World might consider
adding a files section to the current web page
specifically for Public Domain/Shareware files
referenced in the magazine article
lark Alexander

While some of our writers have internet Email, notall
of them do, and not all of them wish to have their
Email address published. When authors include an
Email address for publication, we're happy to oblige
with publishing it. For those authors who do not have
an Email address, or do not wish to have it published,
please feel free to address your correspondence to
them directly to Commodore World's Email address:

emd.cw@the-spa.com

I'd suggest that you also begin your message with a
note requesting that Commodore World forward the
message to the appropriate author.

Concerning the specific program you asked about,

which I assume was PRINT 1.0, I checked a
Jew of the most popular Internet FTP sites for
Commodoreand GEOS programs and cameup blank.
Lalso did an FTP search using a search engine, but
again came up emply.

A quick check of the files on Genie, however, turned
up versions 2 and 2.5 of TEXTPRINT, in the GEOS
libraries maintained by the Commodore Roundtable,
The files are:

TEXTPRNTV2.SDA (Commodore File #14110)
iXTPRT25.SEX (Commodore File #14177)

Inaddition, this search also yielded a version of the
program which was modified for use with Hewlett-

COMMODORE WORLD

Packard printers, which usea different set of printing
codes. That version was split into two archives:

HPTXTPRNTLSDA (Commodore File #14107)
HPTXTPRNT2.SDA (Commodore File #14108)

we have

As for starting up an FTP site oursel
looked into that, However, because of the time and
expense that would be required to create and operate
an FTP area, it was decided that this would not be
possible at this time. While it is possible we could do
soata later date, we would first need to find away for
such an added service to pay for the time and the
online storage that would be required to create and
maintain it,

- Fad.

SwiftLink Programming Info

I would like to suggest that a good future article
for CW magazine would be a good basic routine
toadd toa basic program which would allow one
to communicate to a Swiftlink. If such info is
already available.

- Richard C. Kirk

Wedo appreciate the sui
needs to be programmed in machine language, not
BASIC, and the programming of this devit
rather involved subject. For those who are interested,
CMD does offer a programming guide for SwiftLink,
which can he ordered directly from CMD’ order line
(1-800-638-3263). That information will also be
made available on CMD's web site at some point in
the future, We should also mention that CMD has
discontinued SwiftLink, and replaced it with a new
modem interface, the new Turbo232.

is a

- Ed.

Searching for Printers?

Several years ago, | visited a store in Santa Ana
that was strictly for Commodore Computers.
Unfortunately, Idonot remember where thestore
was and have not been able to find an
advertisement for them in any of my husband's

4

computer magazines, lamin need ofanewprinter
that will be compatible with a Commodore 64,
and was wondering if you knew of any locations
in Southern California that would have any of
these printers. Currently I have an Okidata 120
and wouldn't mind another one of the same if
they are available anywhere.

- Anonymous

Commodore compatible printers, like your Okidata
120, are no longer being made. Most users now must
use standard printers which can be attached via a
printer interface. However, you can often find printers
such as the one you're using in the used market. In
Sact, many of the advertisers in Commodore World
sell used and/or refurbished printers, Commodore
Country, Creative Micro Designs, and Tech Star are
probably the most common sources for these.

You might also try one of a number of online
resources, One suggestion would be the eBay Auction
Web at http://www.ebay.com/aw/, Another good
place to check is http://www.televar.com/~rjlong/
stores.html, which lists a number of sources for
Commodore equipment located in your state (and
many outside your state, too).

- Ed.

Commodore Tower

I'm searching for an article which according to a
source in comp.sys.cbm was published in
Commodore World, Issue 10, volume 2, number
6. The article was about creating a Commodore
“tower” computer,

- Jack Followay, Jr.
Commodore World Issue 10did featurea Commodore
‘tower’ on the cover, and there was also a pictorial of
other unusual Commodore creations, all designed
and made by Al Anger. However, there was no actual
article on creating these items, Also, we ran out of
Issue 10 a few weeks ago, although we do make
photocopies of it and other out-of-print issues
available along with our regular back-issues.
- Ed.
»

Issue 18

The onlyfeamagazine tor C-64/128

v =
For more than two
Worldihas emp

Matiomonthewany lof Commodore
icomputingalpreugieur statt of leading,
experts ikem field, Maurice, Rat

thar acsplors
RApe wade the Gommod
Subscribe or renew today!
i

Please begin my subscription to Commodore World as soon as possible!
Subscriber Information Payment Information

Name: __ _ r {one year subscriber only)
Addr bs | | order in U.S, Funds
City te/Prov. my (c
Country: ne: ( N j C) AMEX
One Year Subscription (Eight Iss
United St 29.95 Canada & Mexico.
Europe (E 4 Obher Foreign
Back Issues: C/ > esigns, Inc.
: Box 646
East Longmeadow, MA 01028

COMMODORE AND COMPUTER INDUSTRY NEws

Announcing the new C-64 CDROM “Audio Vol 1”

While we don’t usually publish info about CD-ROMs with Commodore
content, more often than not that is due to the content being made up of
blatent copyright violations, Also, most such CD-ROMs are generally
pointed toward emulator users, not actual Commodore users. We found
the following announcementto be alittle different, so we've decided to pass
this one on for the benefit of users who either havea CD-ROM interfaced to
their CMD HD, or some other means to transfer from CD-ROM to their
Commodore computer:

Unlike other C-64 CDROM disks, which are collections of games, this
CDROM has over 6,000 SID files along with utilities and players. This
collection of SID Files includes over 2,000 stereo SID files and many
Singalong SIDS. Also included is PLAYSID and playsid sid collections.
The new C-64 CDROM “Audio Vol 1” is available for only $25, shipped
anywhere in North America (add $5 for shipping elsewhere in the world—
$30 total in US funds). For immediate shipment send a money order to:

Corey Kelts

5871 Blue Iron Way

Kearns UT 84118

Email: ckelts@media.utah.edu

Go64!?

We recently reported that the German publication 64’er was no longer
being produced. In its wake, however, the following announcement
appeared on the Internet:

After the demise of the last German C64/C128 magazine 64’er, my friends
and I decided to make our own German Commodore magazine. It will be
called GO64), and will b lable via subscription only. Here are a few
facts about our magazine.

There are five editors, two in Germany, and three in Austria. The
Germans are CSW/Plush and Vectrocon/Fairlight, the Austrians are
Spockie/T’Pau, 2Hip/T’Pau, and Rudi/GIG (GEOS Interests Group). The
magazine will be layed out in Austria and printedand shipped in Germany
twelve times annually.

The magazine will cover as many C64/C128 topics as possible, e.g.
GEOS, hardware and software reviews, scene related topics, internet stuff,
games, hardware projects, reports, news, etc.

COMMODORE WORLD

We cooperate with PPE, CMD, and all GEOS groups.The word of our
arrival is currently being spread via IRC, new: and diskmags.

Some general info: A trial subscription of cost DM 24, a full
subscription costs DM 94. These prices are for German subscribers, for
shipping to foreign countries, there will bean additional charge, butat this
time I am unsure of the exact amount. Ifinterested, please contact me at:
spockie@giga.or.at.

Ifyou don’t have access to Email, please contact our publisher:

CSW Ver

Goethe 22
D-71364 Winnenden
Germany

Telephone/FAX: ++49/(0)7195 61120

Inner Space Anthology Available

Another tidbit we recently found online is that Karl Hildon, author of The
Complete Commodore Inner Space Anthology, has recently begun making
this resource available once again. Here's what Karl had to say:

The Complete Commodore Inner Space Anthology is a collection of
reference material for Commodore computers. It contains no reading—
just page after page of charts and tables, including:

Command summaries for BASIC, COMAL, ML;

Jim Butterfield’s memory maps for the PET, VIC20, C64, C128, and
the 4040, 8050 and 1541 disk drives

Machine language monitor commands

PAL and CBM assembler commands and .opt directives
Addresses of user callable ROM suboutines

Jim Butterfield’s “SuperCharts”

Disk drive file header and sector format information
SID chip note values

. video chip data and video memory maps
Character and sprite design templates

Hardware port pinouts and transfer sequences

IC chip pinouts

Color codes,

It also contains several indirectly related charts and tables:

Issue 18

* Sheet music symbols

+ Note frequencies and chord derivatives

* Checking semiconductors with an ohmmeter
* Trigonometry rules

* Unit to unit conversions (approx. 800)

* Geometric area and volume formulae

* Periodic table of the elements

. ++ plus much more!

Prices include shipping and handling:
From the U.S.A, - US $20.00,
From Canada - Cdn $20.00
Outside North America - contact me ¢

Karlh@inforamp.net”

Send check or money order to:

Karl Hildon
4 Pollard Drive

Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
MIRAG4

For Visa card orders, simply E-Mail your card number (sorry, Visa only)
and expiry date to:

karlh@inforamp.net

The billing company on your invoice will appear as “Attic Typesetting,
Inc.”

Many who have already ordered have asked for an autographed copy.
T'manot sure why anyone would want my scribbly signature on their brand
new book, but requests will be humbly honored.

Faster Modem Interface from CMD

Creative Micro Designs has recently discontinued manufacturing their
SwiftLink-232 cartridge, and have replaced it with a new product called
Turbo232. Thenew product, whichis program-compatiblewith SwiftLink,
adds three new high-speed selections to support 57.6K, 115.2K and 230K
bit per second communication rates, Turbo also been redesigned
for better hardware compatibility and easier configuration for users with
special requirements, Announced price is $39.95, and shippingisslated for
mid-January.

ErRoR cOrRRECTION

Anumber of the program lines in the FSPLIT.CREATE program
(CW17, ppg. 44-46) had incorrect line numbers, which if entered
would cause the program data to be out of order. Specifically,
lines 3328-3578 (on page 46) should have been 2560-2810
(with an increment of 10 for each line number).

Looking fora Commodore user group in your area? User groups can help you solve problems, keep
you informed of new products and events that might be of interest, and give you a chance to share
your computing experiences with others who enjoy Commodore computing. The listings below
include; Name, Address, Meeting dates, Number of members, Contact person, and Phone.

Suncoast Commodore Club Basic Bits Commodore Group

1555 Orange Street
Clearwater, FL 34616

PO Box 81886

Jackson Michigan CCC
33 Indian Trail
Munith, MI 49259

PO Box 1899

Cincinnati Commodore Computer Club
c/o 31 Potowatomie Trail
Milford, Ohio 45150

December 1996/January 1997

Cleveland, OH 44181-088
South Bay Computer Groups

Chula Vista, CA 91912-189

Commom Computer Club
6500 Center Ridge Road
Newburgh, IN 47630

Tri-City Commodore Computer
320 NE C Street, Apt. A
College, WA 99324-212

Hamilton Commodore Users Group
35-1400 Limeridge Rd.
East Hamilton, Ontario L8W-1L7, Canada

COMMODORE WORLD

by fim Brain

Welcome to another edition of Commodore
Trivia. As many of you may know, these trivia
questions and answers have been donated by
me to the Commodore community at large.
Unlike other articles in Commodore World,
these trivia questions have been placed in the
public domain. I ask only that the trivia
questions remain intact and unchanged, and

that my name and address appear somewhere
so users can contact me. The trivia is also used
fora contest I run on the Internet; contact meat
the included address for more information.
Because curiosity has the best of me, | always
welcome a note or postcard detailing where the
ia goes. I also welcome new questions—
provided they come with the answers. Enjoy!

triv

‘OMMODORE TRIVIA

Jim Brain
Brain Innovations, Inc.

10710 Bruhn Ave
Bennington, NE 68007
j.brain@ieee.org

COMMODORE TRIVIA 7 QUESTIONS

$100) On the MOS Technology's KIM-1, how many

ys were on the keypad?

$110) Whi

Commodore assets?

is the name of the company that recently pure!

ed the liquidated

$101) The KIM-1 keypad had the common 0-9A-F keys on the keypad, but also had
some special keys. Name them.

$102) The KIM-1 wasa set of modules that could be plugged together to expand the
ayiemn h module had a model number. What was the model number of
the KIM-1 motherboard?

$103) On the 1525 line of printers, if you wanted to create the following graphic,
what bytes would you send to the printer after turning on graphics mode?

$104) What is the horizontal resolution of the 1525 line of printers?

$105) On Commodore drives, explain the difference between the B-R command
and the UL command,

$106) On the Commodore 1541 drive, what does the U: command do?
$107) What does the first routine in the 1541 drive ROM actually do?

$108) How many files will a 1581 disk drive hold?

$109) Commodore 1581 drives have a special “autoboot” feature that enables the
drive to load and run a program off a disk upon drive bootup. What is the
required name of the file?

$10A) What filetype must the file mentioned in $109 be?
$10B) To power up a 1351 mouse in “joystick mode”, what must the user do?

$10C) Describe the contents of the POTX or POTY registers when using a 1351
mouse.

$10D) Commodore computers typically use most of zero page for temporary
iables and other items, However, both the VIC-20 and the 64 reserve 4
bytes for user programs that need zero page memory. Where are these
locations?

‘$10E) Name the 16 colors available on the 64.

$10F) Both the VIC-20 and the C64 emulate the operation of the 6551 UART. How
many “mock 6551” registers are mapped into the memory map?

COMMODORE WORLD

$111) Atone time, Commodore attempted to manufacture a dual drive version of
the 1571 called the 1572, For what technical reason did it utimately fail?

$112) Over what computer system did a User Group sue Commodore and win?

$113)In$103, the question asked how tocreateagraphicofasmall boxonthe 1525,
In this quesrtion, we have made a different design. Ifyou wanted tocreate the
following graphicusing individual dotson the printer, what bytes would you
send to the printer after turning on graphics mode?

$114) (Some C65 questions) How many SID chips does the the development
Commodore 65 machine contain?

$115) What CPU does the Commodore 65 use?
$116) What is the alternate name for the Commodore 65?

$117) How many processors does the internal 1581-compatible drive on the C65
contain?

$118)Inthe tradition of na
the ICs in the C
Which one?

ming certain ICs after famous cartoon characters, one of
is named after a Warner Brothers cartoon character.

$119) What version of BASIC is included on the Commodore 65 in C65 mode?

SLA) How

any I/O ports does a Commodore 65 contain?
$11B) What common Commodore 64 I/O port does the C65 NOT have?
$11C) How many function keys are on a Commodore 65?

$11D) What CBM disk drive DOS was used as the template for the internal C65
drive DOS?

$11E) What resolution of text screen does the C65 power up in? (Pleasegiveanswers
in characters).

SLIF) What distinguishing non-textual characteristic in the C65 is not present in
othe Commodore 8-bit computers?

Issue 18

COMMODORE TRIVIA #16 ANSWERS

$0F0) The matrix was 8 by 8.
S$0F1) 15359 bytes free.
$0F2) “standard mode”.

ternate mode”

SOF3)

SOFA) chr$(142)
SOP5) chr$(14)

SOF6) Yes. The above translates a

S$0F7) col. “0”
command is a

‘SHIF

SOF8) 11 elements. Almost everyone who has ever programmed in Commodore
BASIC has seen the “BAD SUBSCRIPT” error when they try to use the 12th

For those who are interested, the COLL!
alogous to the VALIDATE operation,

LIST 60 through to and including 100,

element ina un-DIMensioned array.

SOF9) 10 bytes. Since this area could be POKEd to, many boot programs would
rs into this buffer to simulate ke

poke char

SOFA) A physi
“logical” sectors ir
Commodore drives.

| sector is 512 bytes in length. Interna
physical sector, to maintain compatibility

presses,

lly, the 1581 ere:

2256
ith older

SOFB) The X64 series. That includes the Commodore 16, the Commodore 116, and
the Commodore Plus/4.

SOFC) Even though you are looking for digital information (how far the mouse has
traveled since the last movementina particular axis), theinformation isread
from the “paddle” or potentiometer (POT) registers. On the C64, the POT
registers are part of the SID chip, and are at 54297 ($D419) for POTX, and
54298 ($D41A) for POTY,

S$0FD) 802640 bytes.

SOFE) When the 1670 modem was first introduced, it powered up in auto-answer
mode, which means it would answer incoming calls after the phone rang,
You could turn this feature off through software control, butifthe powerwas
reset, the modem would answer the phone. So many people complained to
Commodore that CBM revised the 1670 to include an extra DIP switch that
turned this feature off,

SOFF)T is 101 meanal dil/Suannal answer 0 300 bps modem. The author owns
one, and used it for many To operate, you must use a phone with a
detachable handset cord. You d railed the number on the phone, waited for
the answer, unplugged the handset, and plugged the cord into the 1600, A
switch toggled between using originate oranswer frequencies, The 1600 was
manufactured by Anchor Automation for Commodore, (As a aside, this
unit claimed 300 bps, but I never could get 300 to work well, Most of my
telecommunications happened at 150 bps.)

Paxtron

i. CORPORATION f

6510, 6526, 6567,6569, 6581, 6522,
8502, 8562, 8500, 8563, 8564, 8721,
8722, 325302, 390059, 251968 ., $8.95
901225, 901228, 901227, 906114PLA...$6.95
251715, 251913, 8580,WD1772 ., $10.95
91497203 (C128 ROM Upgrade) .. $24.95

Motherboards.
1541 (Rofurb,)
1571 (NEW) $19.50
C-64 (Refurb,/tested) $21.95
C-64 (untested, as is, all chips). $17.95
C-128 (NEW) .. $49.95
C-128-D (NEW)... $52.50

Diagnostics & Manuals
Commodore Diagnostician: Guide to
diagnose & fix C64/128/1541 .... $6.95
Manuals: MPS 802 & 1230, 1084, 1902,
1581, 1526, 1571, 801, C64, C128 .. Call
We are now receiving manuals for all
Commodore products from SMG....... Call

Floppy Disk Drives
1541 (Refurb) . $39.95
1571 (Refurb) $49.95

$14.95

128-D Keyboard (NEW) $27.95
C-64 Keyboard $14.95
Monitor Cabies ....... Call
1541/1571 Alignment Kit $15.95

1084S Motherboard w/ Flyback $69.95
1084S Power Supply Board (Refurb) $29.95
C-64 Cabinet (Top/Bottom) ...... $12.95
‘Commodore Joystick (Capt, Grant) $2.95
256 x 1 (41256)... $3.39
1541 Serial Cablo 84,95
Video Cable. $5.95
Verbatim 5.25 SS/DD Disks(10 Pak). $1.99
‘Amiga A500 (Rev.3) NEW Motherboard
with all Chips ... cose $59.95

Power Supplies

(All Power Supplies are NEW)
C-64 non-repairable $14.95
C-64 repairable ... $19.95
C-64 Heavy Duty (5.2 amps) $39.95
C-128 Heavy Duty (5.2 Amps) .. $39.95
5.2 amps for Ram Expander Units $39.95

154111 external 110 volts $7.95
1581 external 110 volts $7.95
1084S Flyback (Phillips) $35.50
1084-D1 Flyback $35.95
1084 Fiyback (Daewoo) . $35.95
$tr54041 for 1802C Monitor....... $12.95

+ 1084S Mornersoarn with Fiysack Transformer: This new CBM
board will cure 90% of 1084S problems. Simply switch the PCB and
your monitor problems are solved! This motherboard with factory
mounted flyback, is the exact replacement and works with all 1084S
monitors, It is also very easy to install $69.95

* CD32 Motnersoaro: Contains all chips(Lisa, Alice, Paula,
68020-16, ADV101) except the 512K memories . $89.95
With all memory... . $109.95

* Commopore 1976 Scienriric Catcutator: Save a piece of the
past. Brand new with charger and manual ... $8.95

A500 AMIGA COMPUTER COMPLETE
Paxtron has acquired 250 refurbished ASO0 computers from
Commodore liquidation. This is the perfect time to upgrade to an
Amiga at the perfect price.

‘The A500 COMPUTER with power supply and latest chips (eg: 8372 Agnus, 204

O/S), Includes your choice of the following software/books: Starter Kit (Inc. Kind

Words, Deluxe Paint !!) or Deluxe Kit. Also includes free Amiga Troubleshooting

Guide ($7.98 value), 90 day warranty, tested and ready to go.

Fantasticprice.... $119.95

Options: A501 1/2 meg expansion memory board installad add $10.00 * With 3.1
O/S ROM add $48.50 * PAL unit with 220V power supply add $29.00 *

WERE ON THE INTERNET! COME VISIT OUR HOME PAGE AT: www.paxtron.com

ORDERS 800-595-5534 » 800-815-3241 » 888-PAXTRON
Info 914-578-6522 « FAX 914-578-6550
E-Mall for orders & correspondence:
paxtroncorp@rcknet.com

Hours: 9AM - 5 PM EST We gladly accept:

Add $6.00 for UPS Charges isa) S32) isa |

28 Grove Street

Paxtron

CORPORATION

Spring Valley, NY 10977

December 1996/January 1997 9 COMMODORE WORLD

It’s not surprising to most Commodore owners
that in the early 1980's (1982 to be exact), the
C-64 was the fastest selling and most popular
personal computer ofall time. CBM had almost
50% of the entire computer market, while
companies like Apple, Atari, and Radio shack
had “The high-end of the market”. CBM went
for the low-end, the under $500 market. Jack
Tramiel was once quoted as saying, “We sell to
the masses, not the c!

What does all this have to do with the Apple
II? During the C-64's hay day, the Apple II was
in the “Hi-end” $1000+ category. It’s true that
both computers used the 6502 as their
processor, but there was much more the
ndits popularity. It was noted asa
ed, powerful, super personal
computer. Was the architecture so much more
advanced compared to the C-64, warranting
it’s high price? The Apple Il is not merely a
close cousin to the C-64, but quite possibly it’s
“big baby brother”,

History of the Apple II
In the early 70
academia designing both hardware and
software for vertical market applications.

I came from an area of

Working with the National Science
Foundation, | began with the Mark 8, the
IMSIA 8080 (an $100 buss), MOS
Technologies Kim-1, and the RCA Cosmac VIP.
After NSF, I went to work for Milton Bradley's
newly built Advanced research center in 1979.
Iwas working on the MB-1—a 16-bit personal
computer, later acquired by Texas Instruments
and renamed the TI-99 Home computer. (The
history books do not recognize that Milton
Bradley was the first to create the 16-bit home
computer.)

While working on the MB-1, we had a
department called “The Orchard”. Asthe name
suggests, this a room full of dozens of
Apple II's.Developers were busy redesigning
Milton Bradley “Board” games into Apple II
computer games. A good friend of mine, David
Winzler (the chief software developer for the
“Orchard”), introduced me to the Apple II. I
had to have one, but the price was a bit steep

for my wallet. So, having the schematics at
hand, and the chips being fairly cheap, I built
my own Apple II from scratch for about $200!

In the 1981-83 time frame, Milton Bradley,
trying to redesign a new home computer, was
pushed out of the market. The entire

department was laid off in 1983; advanced
research was closed down. TI's 99/4A's home
computer division collapsed as well as Mattel’s
“Intellivision”, the Timex Sinclair, and a host
of other newcomers. We were all pushed out
of the market by the latest lowest cost system
in town. The Commodore C-64. I went on to
continue developing on the Apple Il platform,
and then in 1985, converted over to Apple's
Macintosh.

Presently, lamamember ofthe CMD family
and have learned a great deal about the class
6502 based machines, the C-64, 128’s ete,
which I had missed or overlooked years earlier,
As I started to really enjoy these “new”
machines, | saw similarities between the C-64
and A2.

The Apple |

Going back in time again, the subject this
time, the Apple 1 and II. In 1975, the Home-
brew Computer club in Palo Alto, C
founded by Steve Wozniak (a 25 year
electronics hacker and an employee of Hewlett
Packard), wanted to build their own personal
computer. The 8080 chip, which was popular
at that time, was the preferred microprocessor

Comparison of Apple Il+, Apple // e, and C-64

Apple I+ Apple //e

Processor

Speed

Memory

Expansion eight 50 pin slots seven-50 pin slots, one 44 pin direct port,
one60 pin slot* one 24 pin user port

Serial Port no no yes

Disk Drive 5,.25"/130K 5.25"/160K §.25°/160K

Video Out NTSC NTSC NTSC & Chroma

Sound Out yes

RF Out yes

Text Res 40x25
Text Color 3 Modes w/multi-color

Planes Back/Foreground

Lo-Res 40x25

Colors 16
Hi-Res 1 280x192 280x192 320x200

Colors Black & White Black & White Black & White
Hi-Res 2 140x192 140x192 160x200

Colors 6 6 4 w/2 modes
Sprites none none 8 w/multi-color

2 Levels 2 Levels 16 Levels
3
Sound FX Complete Synthesizer

System
Disk Drive

* This option allowed Apple's 80 column card with 64K of RAM to
expand the Apple//e up to 128K, for an additional charge.

December 1996/January 1997 W COMMODORE WORLD

by the club. Steve (often called “the Woz”),
had experience with the 6800, but both
processors where almost $200. He happened
upon a new microcomputer chip put out by a
new company called MOS technologies, for a
little over $20, It took some doing, most club
members wanted to stay with the 8080, but
Steve convinced them to go with the MOS
6502, Along with 21 year old Steve Job's
financial help, the Apple I was born in 1976
with 8K of RAM, one slot, and a pricetag of
almost $700 without keyboard, power supply,
monitor, orexternal mass storage (i.e. cassette
interface), Wozniac, used inexpensive TTL
chips for the entire design. These were all basic
gate chips, shift registers, etc. and could be
obtained anywhere for less than a dollar each.
Even the screen display mapping was designed
using these components. The only real expense
(besides the PC board) for complex devices
were the RAM chips and the 6502.

The Apple Il

Enter The Apple IT. With great successes with
the Apple], it was obvious that improvements
had to be made to really direct this machine
into the current infancy of the personal
computer market.

The Apple I was redesign into the infamous
Apple II, shown at the First West Coast
Computer Fair in April of 1977 (the 2 or ILis
sometimes printed as the Apple II). The Woz
and Jobs released it with 4K of RAM,
expandable to 48K, with included empty
sockets, NTSC Video out, an internal 3.5 amp
5 volt power supply, cassette I/O, and a
keyboard were also added. Sound came from
an internal speaker which could make tones
only with special software routines that
toggled the speaker with on and off selecting
from a transistor. 8 slots were added to the
new design to accommodate peripherals like
ards, more memory etc.
and dual paddle port were also
added, but were somewhat difficult to get to.
The cover had to be removed and the Joystick
cable was plugged into a 16 pin socket on the
motherboard after snaking it through a hole
in the back of the computer. It was not like the
9-pin external Atari or C-64 style. Believe it or
not, it wasn’t used very much and most games
used the keyboard, go figure!?

The to cost of this 4K machine? A
whopping $1,300 with game paddles, no
monitor, just the video out. With no RF
modulator available, a company began
producing a UHF model that only cost $75. It
also came with a cassette tape of programs,

COMMODORE WORLD

but no player, compared to the $600
Commodore PET or TRS-80 with cassette
mechanism, this was a bit costly, but did have
expandability—this was the clincher, the
getter, the cross to the “High End” category. It
Wi time did show, the main selling point.
Lift the hood and drop in what was to become
thousands of third party fifty pin “plug and
play” extensions to the machine. There was
even an 80 column card for $300. It cost $600
more for 8-50 pin slots, which may have been
a little high for many families. I believe the
Apple I could have sold for $600 and Apple
Corp., now a giant company in Cuperetino,
would still have made outstanding profits, In
all fairness, however, even with the price, the
Apple II did have excellent graphics for it’s
time, remember we are talking about 1977.
Some Apple II features included:

* 40 character by 24 line text display with
Inverse and flashing characters (no lower
case)
Lo-Res Graphics, 16 color 40 by 48 block
resolution
Hi-Res Graphic
dots resolution
Mixed Mode—with either Hi or Lo-res
modes, this mode has4 lines of text ONLY
at the bottom with 40 by 40 Lo-Res
Graphicsor 280 dots by 160 dots above

4 color 140 dots by 192

The 5 and 1/4 floppy disk drive was finally
available in early 1978 including the controller
card carrying a $600 price tag.

Even with C-64 capabilities which existed 4
years after the Apple II was being sold, the
Apple Il in 1978 was ahead ofit’s time, but the
next 4 years showed no real improvements
except for the Apple II plus in June of 1979 at
$1,200 (Only $100 cheaper than the original).
The improvements were minor at best.
Applesoft BASIC (written by a fairly new
companyat the time called Microsoft) replaced
the Woz’s Integer BASIC, an upgrade to DOS
3.3, 2 more colors added to the Hi-res mode
and small hardware modifications and
enclosure improvements.

Not until the entry of the Apple //e in May
of 1983, were real improvements seen with
newadvanced desi
have been! We all also know, that this was the
time when our beloved C-64 was about a year
oldand known as “The fastest selling computer
in the world”.

Thisis were the breaking point of this article
(and the breaking of this authors heart),
occurs. Apple decided to improve the

12

technology of the Apple Il+, by redesigning
the system using custom LSI chips. This would
result in fewer internal components,
upgrading the design to be more powerful and
most of all, reduce manufacturing costs.
Internally it's code name was Diana, but was
later changed to “LCA”, which stood for “Low
Cost Apple”. When the press got wind of the
new low cost Apple II, they were expecting a
competitive low cost Apple Il price of about
$400 retail. Inside the Apple camp low cost
referred to manufacturing costs, not retail!
Due to this leak and misunderstanding, the
computer was immediately renamed the
“Super II”. Whew, the consumer almost found
out! Sales were still outstanding at the same
$1000 plus price tag, with over 50 thousand
units a month sold (twice that over the II+),
and there was no end in site.

What improvements made the Apple //eso
special? Lets compare it to the older Apple II
plus as well as the Commodore 64.

It doesn’t take too much to realize that the
redesign of the Apple //e was mostly for
Manufacturing cost and little on advancing a
four year old design. In 1978, the Apple II+,
was a powerful little computer, preferred by
many people. Compared to anything else on
the market for an expandable personal
computer, regardless of price, there was
nothing that could touch it, Although by 1983,
so much software was written for it, Apple just
made improvements for themselves.
Compatibility would have suffered. For an
affordable computer with just as much
capability (ifnot more) I believe that the above
comparison shows the C-64 to have much more
than the aging Apple Il+ as well as Apple //e,
especially in the area which matters most—
SSSS.

As | currently do profess to be a C- 64
“convert”, the more I use it, one question
comes to mind, If | had it to do all over again,
which machine would I pick? In 1979, [would
have still home brewed the Apple II (because I
could), but when 1983 came along, I wouldn't
have missed shelling out $300 to buy a lot of
fun with great graphics and sound. As a
software and hardware designer, itwould have
enhanced my career. Apple could have
advanced their machine in 83 to 256 colors,
builtin 80 column, etc,, and kept compatibility
also, to stay in the “High-end market”, It just
boiled down to timing, installed software,
marketing, and the willingness to pay $1200
for a $300 machine.

1)

Issue 18

Commodore World Speci Report

Now that the SuperCPU 64 has been shipping for
a while, the initial clamor has died down and
users are beginning to ask, “When does the 128
version start shipping?” Add to this those who
are asking about the various developer tools and
memory expansion, then top it all off with the
fact that Creative Micro Designs (CMD) has been
fairly quiet about all of these things lately, and it
begins to appear as if there might be something
seriously wrong,

‘The reality of the situation, though, is that
CMD has been quiet mostly because they've been
very busy, Admittedly, though, things are taking
longer than originally anticipated, and other
necessary projects have added to the delays. But
before we get too far s, let's go
back to the announcement of the 128 version,
and then work our way forward,

Theannouncementofthe 128 SuperCPU came
after the 128 community madea strong showing,
convincing CMD that a 128 version would be
viable from a sales standpoint. At the time of the
announcement, CMD realized that there would
be some extra work involved to make a common
main board, which was necessary to make the
128 version cost-effective, The release date of the

64 version was then pushed back from January of

1996 to March, andestimated that the 128 version
would take an additional 60 days beyond that.

However, CMD encountered many more
interfacing problems than they had originally
anticipated. Dealing with these problems
required extensive modification of the custom
logic chip, or CPLD, in the SuperCPU. To further
complicate matters, changing the CPLD became
more and more difficult as the resources within
the chip were dimi
design phase, the CPLD had to be completely
redone a number of times to make additional
logic functions possible.

Finally, in July—four months beyond the new
target date—the SuperCPU 64 was ready, and
shipping began. Knowing that the CPLD design
phase had taken much longer than expected, and

hed, Near the end of the

December 1996/January 1997

SuPpERCPU

UPDATE

by Doug Cotton

assuming that this would also be the case with
creating a CPLD to emulate the 128's MMU, it
would be impossible to get the 128 version to
market in only 60 days, And there was newly
discovered factor that hadn't figured into the
i time estimate—a daughter card would
be required for the 128 version, because
Commodore hadn't allowed some 128 hardware
features to be controlled from the cartridge port.
It was starting to look like it would be the end of
the year before the 128 version could begin
shipping.

And then reports of problems with the 64
version on a few Commodore 64¢ computers
starting coming in. Two more months ofanalysi
and redesign to resolve timing inconsi:
with this specific Commodore model. Changes in
staffing also came around this time, and with the
loss of Wayne Wrubel—CMD's production and
repair technici
called on to fill in on production and repairs
while training new engineering assistant and
technician Tony Cote.

Once Tony began getting up to speed, Mark
was finally able to get back to engineering. But so
much time had passed with all the delays that
another scheduled project needed immediate
attention—a replacement for SwiftLink. Initial
work on this project had begun overa year earlier,
but was put offuntil the current supply of circuit
boards could beexhausted, That time was coming
quickly. SwiftLink had proven to be more
expensive to produce than it really should be for
various reasons, and worse, modem speeds were
escalating quickly to the point of obsoleting the
interface. Mark put ina couple of weeks on anew
design, and passed the results on to Tony for a
out so that he could get back to
work on the SuperCPU project.

After some ii work on the SuperCPU 128
MMU logie, the focus of development moved to
researching the expansion RAM circuitry, which
initially looked relatively simple. However, as
Mark gotalittlefurtherinto the design, it became

an—engineer Mark Fellows was

new board |:

13

apparent that using DRAM (Dynamic RAM) and
astandard approach tothe RAM controller would
not provide adequate performance.

Most of November, and the first part of
December, was spent researching every type of

RAM that might provide a performance boost.
While some types did offer better performance,
these came with added cost and were less
commonly available in the marketplace. In early
interleaved memory scheme w:
investigated, but the method required additional

December

logic that would raise the cost and space

(quirements ofthe controller—but there wasn't
that much room available on the board,

The solution came in using 72-pin SIMMs—
an idea that was earlier rejected because these
SIMMs are 32 bits wide, making their use
prohibitive. Upon closer inspection, however,
only Error Correcting (ECC) SIMMs presented a
problem—standard Fast Page and EDO types

offer access to 8-bit segments of the 32-bit data.
By combining standard Fast Page 72-pin SIMMs
with interleaved access, adequate performance
at optimal pricing was attained.

This brings us nearly up to date, as CMD is
currently prototyping the RAM controller. CMD
has also decided to release a separate SuperCPU
64 RAM expansion card as soon as possible,
because this helps prove out the design for the
128 model, and is instrumental in getting
developers going on new SuperCPU-based
applications. The card will offer a single 72-pin
SIMM socket, capable of holding from 1 to 16
Megabytes of RAM. Much of the work required
to move from the prototype to the production
model will be handled by Tony Cote, allowing
Mark Fellows to continue work on the rest of the
SuperCPU 128 circuitry and firmware.
en the delays, and considering the amount
of work remaining in the project, CMD estimates.
release of the SuperCPU 128 will be in April.
CMD also wishes to express thanks to all the
SuperCPU 128 customers who have waited
patiently for this product. It's coming! §)

COMMODORE WORLD

Commodore Drives

Every sooften, IreceivealetterfromaCommodore
enthusiast or collector that asks about an odd
Commodore drive. The person mentions that the
drive contains the familiar Commodore logo and
name, but it doesn’t look like any drive they've
ever seen. This doesn’t surprise me, as most
current Commodore owners grew up with the
Commodore VIC and 64 line of computers, and
have never seen a drive older than a 1541. They
assume that the 1541, 1571, and 1581 drives
encompass the entire spectrum of CBM units.
These drives spark questions like “Did
Commodore provide computers forthe military?”
or “Are these 1541 compatible drives made by
another company and marketed by CBM?". Have
you ever seen such a drive and wondered what it
was?

Contrary to popular belief, neither the 1541,
nor its predecessor the VIC-1540, begin the
Commodore line of drives. I suppose some really
don’t care to know differently, but I find that
knowing the history behind Commodore
products helps me appreciate them and what
they do. Ifyou share that thought, continue on.

For those who may not know, this article is the
second part of a series on CBM drives started in
Commodore World Issue 11. The previous article
described the serial drive lineage (1540 on). If
you haven't read it, | encourage you to do so.

In The Beginning...

Depending on which reference you consult, the
“beginning” concerning Commodore computers
and peripherals starts in either late 1976 or late
1978. (See sidebar “When Did It Start”). In any

COMMODORE WORLD

PART II

by Jim Brain

case, Commodoreintroduced their first computer
system, the “Personal Electronic Transactor
2001” or “PET”, at this time. The machine
includeda system unit, akeyboard, a9 inch black
and white monitor, and a tape cassette deck ina
single enclosure made from heavy 18 gauge steel.
Although some claim the steel case was used to
comply with FCC RF egulations, the
FCC had not yet iss such regulations.
Truthfully, Commodore simply used in-house
services. Since Commodore was in the office
furniture business, the cases were made from
sheet metal of the same type used to make metal
desks and file cabinets. Anyone who has ever
lifted a PET machine or its peripheral knows of
the strength of these cases. Internally, the system
contained BASIC 1.0 and a 40 column video
display IC. Those who preordered the machines
inJune ofthat year received 4kB units, while units
after introduction sported 8 kB or RAM. As for I/
O, the unit featured a second tape drive port, a
user port, and an IEEE-488 compatible port. The
IEEE port wasalready in useon Osbornel portable
computers, and this port was used by many
scientific instruments to communicate with one
another.

Given the impressive list of features that
accompanied the PET, it is interesting to note
that the ability to interface with a floppy diskette
drive was not one of them. This is somewhat
ironic, given the business background of
Commodore and the fact that other systems
sported disk drive interfacing abilities. Whileitis
true that drives were priced a bit too high for
most hobbyists, businesses could afford suitable

14

diskette drives and needed to the advantages of
diskette storage. In addition, the BASIC included
with the PET (BASIC 1.0, also called “Original
ROM" BASIC) did not support disk drives in any
way. Thus, we begin ourjourneyintoCommodore
drive history.

The “First” Commodore Drive

In December 1978, the first disk drive for the
Commodore PET line of computers was
introduced. The dual drivesystem utilized 2 single
sided, single density 5.25" mini-floppy drive
mechanisms and provided 100 kilobytes of
information per disk side or 200 kB of online
storage per unit. This drive holds at least one
other distinction in addition to arriving first, it
was not manufactured by Commodore.

Commodore owners know about “clone” or
“Commodore compatible” drives. These drives,
manufactured by companies other than
Commodore, promise compatibility with a
particular model or models of Commodore
manufactured drives. typical examplesin the VIC/
CBM 1541 line include the Enhancer 2000 and
FSD-1. Since compatibility is the primary
objective, clone drives are measured by how well
theyemulatethe Commodore counterpart. Given
the nature of this series, we've refrained from
discussing the many clone drives, but we'll make
this one exception given the background of this
drive unit.

It is somewhat misleading to call the first PET
drivea “clone” drive, sinceit really didn'temulate
any Commodore drive (since there weren't any
out yet). Nonetheless, Commodore didn’t

Issue 18

produce it. The drive, model DKH641, was
developedand manufactured by (lam not making
thisup) “Convenience Living” andinterfacedwith
the PET via a special disk controller board that
was installed inside the computer, Some may ask
why the unit required a special interface given
that the PET came standard with an IEEE-488
port. Well, while Commodore did include the
port on the PET system, the Operating System,
complete with BASIC 1.0, it did not provide for
disk usage. The OS, usually referred toas “Original
ROMs", allowed only tape storage. The DKH641
drive contained its own Disk Operating System
called DiskMon which added 14 commands to
BASIC for disk access. The entire package,
including the interface, retailed for $1295.00

Many people remember an early disk drive
unit forthe PET manufactured by“Computhink”.
The two drives are one in the same. The name
change from Convenience Living to Computhink
occurred by February 1979. In reality, research
suggests the company was closely tied with or
owned by a distributor of PET products called
New England Electronic Company, or NEECO.
Also at this time, Computhink increased the
capability ofthe DKH641 by using doubledensity
mechanisms. This gave 200 kB of storage per
drive or 400 kB online storage. The new model,
listed as DKH642-1, retailed for the same price.
In addition, a double sided version of the unit
offering 400 kB perdiskand 800 kB onlinestorage
was also offered.

The 10XX “internal” Drives

Even as the Computhink drives hit the market,
Commodore was at work creating its first disk
drive. Sources indicate these internal prototype
drives were given model numbers, The first
internal unit was numbered 1010, with a model
1020 and 1030 following. Research indicates
Commodore showed the final unit, model 1030,
to PET enthusiasts before finalizing a design.
Some users reported knowledge of the unit and
noted that the unit was “very buggy”. Whatever
their function, information suggests that
Commodore did not market the LOXX drive line,

The PET/CBM 2040

‘The Commodore model 2040 disk drive holds
the distinction of being the first Commodore
produced PET floppy drive unit. Initially offered
le in April 1979 for $1295.00 (the same
the Computhink DKH641/6420X), the
2040 utilizes 2 Shugart Associates 5.25" full height
single sided double density drive mechanisms
with pushdown door latches and a computer
board enclosed in the same 18 gauge sheet metal
as the PET computer system. The unit measures

price

December 1996/January 1997

6'5" high by 15" wide by 14.35" deep and
contains the drives side by side in the
enclosure. The unit features off-white paint
on top and black painting on bottom to match
the PET case color. A black decal runs across
tothe top front of the unit with the traditional
Commodore “chicken feet” log and the
Commodore name printed on the left side.
A large “CBM” with the text “model 2040”
appears in the middle of the decal, while
the words “dual drive floppy disk” appear on
the right.

As for usage, the drive interfaces to the
means of the IEEE-488 1/0 port. However
the original OS in the PET could not handle disk
drives, buyers had to upgrade the ROMs in their
PET system to utilize the new drive. The new
ROMs were nicknamed “Upgrade ROMs”. The
two drives are addressed within programsas the
same device number (factory set to device 8)
with separate unit ids (0 and 1), Strangely, the
units are positioned in the case in reverse order.
Unit 0 is on the right, while unit 1 resides to the
left ofthe drive enclosure. 3 LED's signal activity,
power, and error conditions. Each drive contai
its own red activity LED, while a middle red LE
indicates an error.

Data is written to 5.25" SS-DD floppy disks
using the Group Code Recording (GCR)
method (See What is GCR?). Each drive
initially held 176,440 bytes of information, of
which the user could utilize 170,850 bytes for
program and data files. A query of the disk
operating system version on original units
returns 1,0. The DOS is similar to and accepts
most of the commands found in the familiar
version 2.6 DOS in CBM 1541 drives. One
notable exception from the Ddrive DOS is
relative files. While the 2040 could handle

i

|
}
|
|

15

Random files (basically a fancy name for raw
data storage), the drive did not understand
the concept of relative files.

Internally, the 2040 packeda lot of power. The
2040 unit contains not 1 but 2 central processing,
units. In an era when most drives either did not
contain an onboard CPU or contained at most a
single CPU, Commodore's parallel processing
drive units rose above the ordinary. The unit
contained a MOS 6502 CPU as well as a MOS
6502 CPU (a 6502 derivative). Each accessed its
own I/O and timers, while the two processors
shared access to 4 kilobytes of RAM.

The CBM 3040
Commodore marketed the PET 2001 in Europe
with a full size keyboard and the CBM 3000
series. The 2040 was sold as a peripheral for
thismachine, but itwas relabeled asthe model
3040 in order to give the impression the drive
was made specifically for the European
machine. Ironically, the drive did belong with
the computer, but both model numbers had
to match for buyers to believe it.
The2040(andits twin, the 3040) wentthrough
two major DOS revisions. The first, version 1.2,
merely fixed some timing bugs in the original
DOS. The second, version 2.0, first appeared in
early 1980 and added the familiar relative file
support to Commodore's drive. Other things
changed with the introduction of DOS 2.0, but
we'lldiscuss them in more detail when we describe
the CBM 4040,

The CBM 8050

AsCommodore'ssecond drive offering, the 8050
departed from 2040 compatibility in favor of
allowing more storage per disk. Although the
8050 appears identical to the 2040/3040 in

COMMODORE WORLD

appearance, the drive is drastically different
internally. In order to provide more storage
capacity per diskette, the 8050 uses single
sided quad density Micropolis drives to allow
storage of 533,248 bytes per disk. Of that,
521,208 bytes are available for user storage.
Interfacing is provided through the IEEE-488
port, with the familiar CBM DOS command
set. A query of the DOS version can return 2.1,
2.5, or 2.7, depending on date of manufacture
and upgrade status. All DOS versions
implement the now familiar relative file type.
‘The 8050 continued the tradition of utilizing
two CPUs to handle drive activities, but
switched to using two identical 6502 CPU
instead of the 6502/6504 combination utilized
in the 2040/3040. The 8050 also introduced
the bicolor drive status LED. Earlier 2040 units
contained a single red LED in the center of the
drive front that turned on to indicate an error.
The 8050, in contrast, featured a bicolor LED,

COMMODORE WORLD

On power-up, the LED flashed from red to
green and back a few times, finally turning
green to indicate power. If an error occurred,
the LED would turn to red. Introduced in June
1980, the 8050 accompanied the introduction
ofthe new 80 column PET computer, the PET/
CBM 8000 series.

The CBM 8061 and 8062

The 8061 and 8062 differ with respect to the
most of the other drives mentioned in this
article, as they are dual 8" floppy diskette
drives. Able to read and write disks formatted
in either CBM GCR format or IBM 3740
format, the 8061 utilized single sided
mechanisms to store 1.6 megabytes of data
per disk, while the 8062 featured double sided
mechanisms allowing storage of 3.2 megabytes
of data. Other than the fact they were
introduced in mid 1980, not much else is
known about these units,

The CBM 4040

In late 1980, Commodore created
the PET/CBM 4000. series
computer system by merging the
full keyboard version of the PET
2001 with the BASIC 4.0 found in
the 8000 line. Along with the
computer introduction,
Commodore upgraded the 2040
drive once again to feature relative
file support and enhancements
found in the 8050 DOS, Dubbed
DOS 2.0, The ROM formed the
heart of the 2040 drive unit.
Commodore renumbered the
resulting package the CBM 4040
drive. Externally, only the decal
changed to denote the new drive.
Internally, the new DOS added
fixes and enhancements found in
the 8050 DOS, it reduced the
capacity of the drive somewhat.
While the 2040/3040 drives
featured 176,640 bytes of raw
storage per disk, the 4040 could
store only 174,848 bytes of raw
data. Astute readers will note that
this is the same storage capacity as
the 1540 and 1541 drives and their
direct descendants. Users quickly
dubbed this the “4040 format”,
although the 2.0 ROMs had been
made available to 2040/3040 drive
owners a few months earlier. The
4040 utilized the same dual
processor arrangement and CPU

16

types as the earlier 2040/3040 units. Later
models of the 4040 came with a slightly
upgraded 2.1 DOS version.

The CBM 2031 and 4031

since the introduction of the 2040, PET
enthu: jamented the lack ofa cost effective
single drive for the PET line. Finally, in late
1981, Commodore finally produced such a
single drive for the PET/CBM line. The 2031
drive resembles one-half of a 2040 drive unit
externally. Basically, the system functions just
like the 2040, albeit with only unit 0
functioning. A query of the DOS version
returns 2.6. Research suggests the 2031 was
produced to accompany the PET/CBM 2000
series computers, while the 4031 accompanied
the 4000 series PET/CBMs. The two units are
identical in all other respects.

The CBM 2031Ip and 4031Ip
Following the introduction of the 2031 and
4031 drives, Commodore introduced the first
serial drive, the VIC 1540. The 2031/4031
and the 1540 share many similarities, and
Commodore was well known for cutting costs
wherever possible. Research suggests
Commodore reworked the 2031/4031 drives
to fit in the 1540 case and utilize the Alps half
height mechanism used in the 1540, Thus, the
2031LP “low profile” was born. Residing ina
durable plastic case measuring 97mm high by
200 mm wide by 374 mm deep, the 2031LP
functioned identically in all respects to its
predecessor. Initially, the front decal work
shared similarities with early plain VIC-1540
decal work, sporting brown decals with white
lettering labeled “Commodore” on the left,
“single fdrive floppy disk drive” in the middle,
and “2031" on the right. Note that no “Ip”
moniker was shown, Later decal work shares
artwork from “rainbow” 1541 decal work, with
silver raised “Commodore” on left and
“2031LP” on right. To distinguish these
models from the earlier ones, the full height
2031/4031 is stated as the HP “high profile”
model.

The CBM 8250

In early 1982, Commodore unveiled an
enhancement to the 8050 drive. Commodore
replaced the single sided drives in the 8050
with double sided mechanisms. Thisincreased
user storage capacity to 1,049,782 bytes. To
handle the 1 MB* of data storage capability,
Commodore upgraded the DOS to version 2.7.
This new DOS enhanced the notion of relative
files include the concept of “super side

Issue 18

sectors”, While prior relative file support in
Commodore drives contained a maximum
number of records per relative file, the
addition of super side sectors removed the
limit. Externally, only the decal denotes the
8250 unit.

The CBM 8280

As with the 8061 and 8062, the 8280 uses 8"
floppy diskettes to store data. Utilizing dual
mechanisms stacked atop one another, the
8280 applied an upgrade of DOS 2.7 found in
the 8250 numbered DOS 3.0. Each drive
allowed storage of 1 megabyte of user data
and could read and write IBM 8" disk:
8280 sported half height or “slimline” drive
mechanisms, while the dual 5.25" drives
utilized full height mechanisms. Thus, the
8280 resembled an 8250 with the drives
positioned top and bottom rather than left
and right in the enclosure. Like the 8061 and
8062, not much else is known about this unit.
Inference suggests it resembled the 8061 and
8062 and that all three were produced to
position Commodore in traditional IBM
business markets,

The

The D9060 and D9090

Long before the Lt Kernel and CMD series of
Commodore hard drives entered the market,
Commodore itself developed and produced a
line of hard drives for the PET/CBM line of
computers. Including the new DOS 3.0 found
in the 8280, the D9060 and D9090 drives
appeared in late 1982 and_ possibly
accompanied the introduction of the
SuperPET 9000. The drives are enclosed in
2031/4031 style cases, and contain a mini-
* style hard drive. Nicknamed the
by Commodore users, the 9060

“mi
provided 5 MB of user storage while the 9090
provided 7.5 MB of user storage. Once again,
interfacing was provided via IEEE-488, and
the 2.7 DOS concept of “super-side-sectors”
enabled relative files to span the entire hard
drive surface.

The CBM 8250Ip

As in the case of the 2031p, Commodore
createda variation ofthe 8250using halfheight
drive mechanisms. However, Commodore
created the 8250p fora different reason. Even
as the Commodore VIC and 64 home
computers started taking a foothold in the
market, Commodore created the B series of
business computers. These new models, also
referred to as the 500, 600, and 700 series,
sported molded plastic cases and sleek styling.

December 1996/January 1997

Clearly, as with the earlier computer
introductions, Commodore needed a drive to
accompany these new machines in the
marketplace. Since no existing drive shared
the sleek styling, Commodore revamped the
8250 by designing a new plastic case and
utilizing half height drive mechanisms. The
new drive, as in the case of the 2031, did not
differ functionally from the older 8250.
Commodore introduced this drive in 1983.

The SFD 1001
This is the IEEE-488 drive most Commodore
users have seen. Commonly mistaken for a
VIC/CBM 1541, the SFD 1001 is actually one
half of an 8250Ip unit packaged in a brown
1541 case. Introduced in June 1985, the decal
work resembled the CBM 1541 brown decal
work with the silver 1541 and the rainbow in
the center. The right side of the decal states
the driveisan SED 1001. FD stands for “Super
Fast Drive", which is misleading, since the
drive doesn’t run any faster than other I
488 unit. However, to user of the crippled
1541, thedrive seems to access data at blinding
speeds. To create the 1001, Commodore
simply populated a 1541 case with
a single 8250lp mechanism and
altered the electronics to fit. A
query of the DOS version returns
2.7, identical to the DOS in the
8250|p. Instead of rewriting the
DOS to eliminate the missing drive
1, Commodore instead shipped the
drive with a daughtercard installed

held the — infamous
CEPTION ROM”, which
handled all attempted access to
drive 1 and returned appropriate
errors. Another notable
difference between the 8250Ip and
SFD 1001 is the style of drive
mechanism. The SFD uses a turn
down door latch, while the 82501p
uses a push down latch.

Conclusion

Thopeyouhave enjoyed thistripdown
Commodore History Lane. If you've
gotten this far, then you must share
my interest in researching old
Commodore history. Hopefully, this
article and the entire series has
answereda few questionsconcerning
theCBM drivesand how they evolved.
However, if you're like me, it also
sparked new questions that require
answering. Iwish Icouldanswerthem

17

all, orstate with complete cei
heard or read. Alas,
documenting its history a less than easy task.
Along other things, CBM frequently pre-
announced products and then delayed
introduction, varied ROM or case versions with
changing model numbers, renumbered existing
products without upgrading the product,
announced productsand then failed to introduce
them, numbered products differently for differing
markets, marketed certain modelsin only certain
markets, and generally confused the readers and
users. I suppose each computer manufacturer
engagesin similaractivities, butnotingtha
the job no less difficult. | won't s
digging for kernels of truth buried in back issues
or periodicals and conversations with veteran
users, but I'd contemplate trading it all for a
reliable source of Commodore historical
information. Alas, | haven't found one yet. Ifyou
find one, let me know.

Following the article area sprinkling of notes |
have accrued on the various drives mentioned in
this articles and some updates to information in
the previous article.

ainty all that Ihave
Commodore made

COMMODORE

WORLD

When D3 WT Stor?
Conall Ayers, who ampies The Grasse Resource, reporTs
she uae) is 4 KB PET in

Vile 1976, and Ron Spyder, who operated US Comat

Thal a Texas \abbysT

upper Sor many ye
105 9 Davamtoee | A726 Will mune
Magazin, in is Apr | ASS issue, pose 4, sTales Thal The Ses
SWS PET was wlroheed (96, Pased oy This
Vs anced in late | A9G/

fer wy Te dale of

owdlons Twat his was peked up at

en) Canine

nSoemilon are wold suen
way 1177, wenn, Ther
Wim. Gil Parvsh wiles Thal Wis research esTablshes a
Taeline, sTuaTiag in tale, 17D, wile nny own personal neseardy
hy Sure 1977 BYTE
maguzing, ConTemporury Mackéting a lunge murketiag San,
“Alo ced The PET Te Tre arporate and bebbysT market willy
aT wo pase sprwd on ppp AD and 4%, Te al, Woweves T
Teal reveals Thal The PET is meAlared in Tre October | 477
“POPULAR SCRREE 1

Sarry | 478 ROMY ove

in od To te 1477. Al, The Mardy | 978 BYTE The
PET is revewed by a use Who inieiles be purchased his OFT
9 Due | 477 ad eeceived Toy Odttoer | 477. The water

& p meATons Thal his PET is seval number | 7. While This

cals “The Glan

nario by
1977,\ & beleve Roy Dy and Connors Magazine To be
crediole oF There, Tre posible AimieTan dates
Late | 6 alan w/Dewmtoer | 1G delery and Sore
V1) ATo Toy w/OeTeboer | 77 delery—> dS be used,
\have only one problem wilh The | 46 date. MOS Tedwalosy
Traued The 6502 in September | F757 AT The Te, OS.
\wes AT owned by Commnie, The spur bél\ween Then and
Vite | 6 When The FET wus anvianved by Commatine sears
yeny THAT ansidering Cammmniine pur WPS beGre Te
PET was WTroeed, As well The MOS Trainer amputen, culled
“The AML , only arrived 9 te | 1957 early | AG, The Timeline
is Tigal boT nat wpessible | leave ST Up To The reader To decide
Which 6 The awredt date. My past research Unearthed eat only
enGaon sunning The wlmakiTy dil. OT ako The. ¥
wookil For years, PET eAThusesls bum, onqued allesilely Thal The,
FET QO -4K and he SK op wer. ATinLad Gast,

IT ks, one mystery seems solved, All of oy research auped
with Dy

dered PET slams were equipped with 4 KS,
while ¢ an of SK WiTs Sr wie
bbiTh mnlels cay shore

GMB ils Gr

To nevada 0%

Te Ti, Conmpine awitted Te
ahave oker, While mo

Related nation suppels a reason

Tramiel sites That buyers were pursing FETs guile readly

COMMODORE WORLD

ngermillon supports The andor Wal pre- 7

les

Fhe SHOT preoiker pres Tak 6 qyiled 0 oe eeGerene os

Secdn5 To respond by dbs Ne il, “Seve sem yy do dohans
The sume woul) prtiadsly
be oil RAM YT) squalls sun ooliny,

ATW Tw, 4 WS of QA 38 eat HOC,

Weal 's GORE

Group Cok Rearing Wann mire simply as GOR, sped

Sisk enndng malo Tal is used boy all Comodo Jaks deives To
Sate exept 1 S81 an) vs derivatives, The preveus ofTele, |
wate) GER as a Commnbre pryidtay eaniag This
aT Apple dei and others used “The GOR enndiag
Commie (and others) osed GORATH ensure dala wTegAilly wy
The dskeTTe, Basically, CLR Tus ear 4 iT mybbole of data WATo
a spectc TST sequene Thal <illows Two cules? |. Mb data
sequence avTins all “|” wits. ond 2D. Thee are never wore Than

CTs tn a sequen

Nese Two 0

ti The kalo of sezTors an Trex)

eer bel

Sead The eesirélon 1 curs © STs alows The Seve

Ala willy as WaTTen Bek

are The aydole Te GOR noble Transtar,

afoble GCS nybble
voce = C1 eC
(cel veel
ice Were
(ell eu
ice cule
el Veber
bbe VV

Vit reel

wee, QO byles To dish Sor early ble of
ng the GOR yells SAS byfes of data tar
Ated GOR is ver Tuer,

o€ Apple Wl Game) as

are aeTuully wriTTen Te
Some cred
Mn the ‘Woe and CBM,

seAT Standard wy Their dnves, gaiey

envanced val Upstuded

The

18

Issue 18

December 1996/January 1997

ed 35k suppor

ISMWISMASNCR

All of The dual deve unis <edTved The poral) CPU
areangemeal. Only The \U's Themselves changed. The 2040/
BOYUC/YCUC drives <eaTured a CSTI/ESTY ambinaton
Whi The BOST/S2ST/SISTLP drives each used 2 6STA
CPUs, Ailhoush sTaTed wy The ofT'cke Tal each dive. avi

Two CPUs, Techwically each avstuins 3 CPUs, One CPU, The

6532, specializes iw Transtiling The 8 bit data wile | C&T GCQ

cokes (See ‘Wal is GORD. Each drive exept The SASTLP
uses Gull heigl Jrwe mechanisms Will push down dor laTches,
and ead, elas a bYIT in power supply.

The Fro min preesons in The stem one hunted The
WlerSane Process’ OP YTask, wri
CPU banted The
Praeswrs any :

KEE-USS periphersls ore aTlixhed To The PET/CE

visy drain Cashion orndh tke The Comwnkve

The remaining general
Task, The Two

ampulers in a
serial peripherals. Trwever, unlike The seral peripherals, aiT al
wreclors one deATeal The EEE-4 82 port

EThe FET/CB™ arputer 4 a |

9 The
Tonal FEEE-4 S324 pin able end Thal resewided a seul version
The EEE-

fb a FET/CAM mutiny o spec and ode

and (29).

of a CeAlionas pull
USS anes
4uge
boy parT mumtaer S21 Cl, To dun oe per phend® oles
FEE-439 bus a able alle ay EEE Ts BEE abe 's equned, 9/
NACSOSO, AI BEEN per pheris clin ory ow aver on
“The ew The UAT, Extn EEIE-Y $9 able ovutlon wos arsine
as 0 poms Trg, bers simply screwed ech new able Te The cea
oS The preva able anyezton, Mire Than one FET/CS camper
cay bbe aywvdled OP ove the FEE-4 $8 bus, as bag as only one ses
The bus aT any To. As well o Trea dTal marin of | devers
an be aad To The bus, down The nuvter 's bwer 9 vedtly
ond depenkeal on colt dever aapdotles

The CRM FEE-“SS viler&

ALA is verTiin whaler Thal s Let

rywilr

dlows TransSers

433 speeSedTen or Commnbve's TransSer ang
2040/3040/4040

The 65T4 CPU bonded The IP Tsk 4 The Tree uals
Raaonponying

“The 38k dwe was a pend User's }

19

poe

CBM £1 4a Dual Payppy Disk Drives’ P/N 32044
TACED SskaTTe, PY CH OCI. | suse The

ask Pi vation ine sve

ave TES
ns a dive wodel mamboer
Ths Sisk wold Veby hove,

CO a The pot

© wines have,

reSer To Their

Uses st
Thal “Tense

drive as a UCC

whe

We 2040/3040
GOGO Sonal wy a sUbTe BUT sUosTaATal way, Tracks | S-
AY on The ACYC/BCYC each eoituin QC seZTors, while
mM FOYE Gnd 1 SUL eT al) Truck | 8-24 only allows | 4

gives The 2O4O/3C4C The abittTy

y eATes (olla sezTor on Truck |)

5 well as & wore bleks o€ daTu per
Js SUBTouT ng The | TECHS bifas of ray SToruge o Tre
Lerman Seves Sem Te | 2484S bytes of caw sTrase
avuldole on The \aTTer deve ond dividing by IS yelds The

eiTra 7 bleh of Alta STivuge. User

The Samal of fers rom) The.

reported problems wilh
Teaks | 3-24. Carolee Tred The
Track \eaier o soe

<ATroduced The UCUC, Tey

wk oT

Subsea eT

‘spon
okequate healer cup, reads ond wiles 33

care enw The Tak wus bid ot This «

To read and we
ar preseoronl
\ suspezt
oress \who

ons, \

ns special abe"Ta vw coats 0f
J read HOUL disks Sane, LT WaT ng
unkss The YCUC BAM worked The
3, Even Then, a validate would

See Them ond reer w writes dey al” best,
WheaTuming a9 a ACUC/SCYC/4CHC
ask The user To opty bill drive dios beGone applying
all Tree eed LIETDs Wald Sash
Siva The Usual head solenoid bus

ve, inal
Trors
power, Upen power up,

bretly and Then gp oct

owrers, The pagan

COMMODORE WORLD

xsers, The 2031 Test damp dskeTTe aTuins a working apy
The prsrum ailed RAUDOMEXAMPLE To kill oo
wiTalizaTion on YCYC, send Sillowing Te ammand chanel? “oe
Wee (OY Sew RU Glew RC Deb “R(L .
BOYC/BOYC/YCUC use a A GOR bile beaker spp,
while 1541 Gaming YCUS Srmal), wes F GOR by

5X64 drive ROM, crunges This back To 4 GLA by
BHC with O05 1.0 T 5

fe WSS nit (SOC
Vn The direzTory Truck, o SO
(meaning DOS | Te nay $OD The
while The YOU wr a OS (AN meaning YCt
On the YCUC, laiTons | CS-| G6 arifuin Tre Gamitar DA
Which means O05 2, 4CUC Somat. All Twee drives bate
The direZTory on Trucs |S, as expezted.

8050
Whe de tbh, an SOST wetes a G7 (CC mauming SCST
Seen) To wail HOD wy The SST beck, 1) On te
BCS, \xdiPors W7-2B adlin “AC! which mums 05 2,
BOSD Gemih, Rammponjing Tis Jee. was a manned User's
Marval Sor CBM 571 4 inch Deal Pappy Disk Drees’ °/
N B20844 ond a TEST/ADEMD Jskette, P/N) SOSTCOST.
Vatully 0€Zend with Menyils mudunans, Cammnbre

semTabed Te Tondo enedranins erwre eelabilly. Tower,

Grom evrensed € Tantn
es ansed cam To reves xk “To Merpals mechanisms.
Madronions con be deAT Ged by The alo and cor oo The dine.
Ry LED, Mere
5 While Torin mechanisms a7

LED bbw The disk sof, Convabre Tred

orechonisms. Later Tantons alin a drive dor sw

is mechanisms Use a <

rain upon dk ener, Merl meanion

atwate

The deve, dor a auple of Teves bore Sully coving This proness
° and helped To we The Je
Wh wile ceeity, tke The Meropais
and Ter Tandon mechanisms, Wad BT seal properly se The disk
\was “Teased’, The SOST was Tully ofS Sor $1 TAS On
We 8080, u Gamal Takes 2 mente

o€ The spevie. O

To drange The devas number va stiwore Gaewund craved):
Twit DX We HO AKAD ARAYA
mew deve number,
ROMs:
Uke
Ut

QL and UAL meat likely coTuny The ile
The Feppy Disk CaAfeuller

ns To ULL and Ul ROMs:

Promane

COMMODORE WORLD

msellreas bis foes

9)
Ensure ere eelabllTy 4 apyng Jsks 9 eTher

and oe wilngy dala ew

SINC 36s Goal, Te s baw dod Te
ids ore 's Wow don T
AT wel rented oy PET urers or Commie dyenpned Ther exstee,
as They reaned op Silver meson afler vilmiaTon

s EydaAly Trey alee were

2031 pgs
The 2C4O with 205 1.0 does o5T weile a duwwyy diiTa bloc,
Howlin dueing Greil. Later
on) drives wel, 256 oul (HCO) oyfes, “Strangely, a bug
9 DOS 26 anses | SUX drnes Te wale | Ub ond 2657
OL offes wsTead. TT is wn Whither Te 105 26 4
Tre 2031 axhbils This same bebuver, The 2031 and YOSI
use ShugeAT SASSO Mechanisms. Early units muy nanplitely
nat a disk, res. Fix wvthies hanhwure aldiTag 0€ a Trunsé

IT bed, Comwndve fered The 203i

boy repens Tre send Tunster oT
lok That Comwnine wold
rp oT EEE ak ani Then repue T bles, | ase Thal Te 2031

Olher sanes £E6fer.\ End T rod T

0 SUC were devebped slant or Wilkin a smal Te Some,

05 enrorvenwals

2031 LE/4031 LE
AT is belesed Tre LP wel Ged Ales odaners The an ale
Mate | SUC of | STL wilh Th: evestion o€ a ERIE

YSS avedliv wilead of Jud wer IN avweitins aT lu

8250

Vitrokeed Sr $21 ISCO, Commande ove agin Tred Tarn
oudrutisns Wilh The S: us They were UpTo I Tass Sister
The enbared operation ad eased pubs 9
BCST, BOT Cammniore develyped Sous “To T The

priv. a wr eas on SCS

ews

rwker va ofTwore, sxe T

20

Issue 18

December 1996/January 1997

drama") Dirt Ye DNAS DAH
NA = new devee amber.

B2s0LP

AT oe Te, Connie sidked ame are sTiing desens Gov ihe
Poste oTTamtble Tying departvwar rp ame of The
Besigrs OT runt dol a new
pensTed and wry dunes Trey des
Comme, Commie denied The annilion Mingirekss The ane
STK As a read, may refer Toe S2STLE, which amped
The & sores, as a The Poste PET dene.

polars Som

8280
This drive canna be Sound in any peraieals, bOI This mde) does
exST. Research suggests T was ary prokued in Europe,
DNL ond DOO

The DAES originally sd Sor RIAA, while Tree ACAD weld
Sap BBYUIE. The minioweresTer deve The DAES aorTuined
Two platters with 25° MB of sTouge per platter, wi
DAHOA aided a’

DOS 30 ond used The new super-sde-sezlo-Tedique Te

3 plaTier. Seve The D seres shipped Wilh
cesT eZTons on veliTve Sle sizes, ear drive. ship
“To dow The drverTo em JaTe The cles sTHe of relative Sle suppor,
Vifernuly, bath aan Transfer data aT S MB per sem Bret
Tubke STaTes Thal boty drives were onde by Tanin Sr C3
Tim BoTTerZeld niles Thal The drives were usuble, boT
\wonned dbodT aTrempting To issue a validate an The disk Bretr
Taoke sTales That he wos dole To crash The drive one. 43s
reseatdn rarrowed down The bus Te
orore Than DYY Zles on dk, and ore Thon | splat <
When The bus dass appear The BAM is weTTen To The
Track of The JSveztoy ond is i
Bret estes Tad dsks WTO celiTve
sxSe Sp WidsTO ond The bong STonk.
wane splat Sles 02 To The en} of The

he Slowing ondTons

making reanery
or splat les were

STi was To

FD 1001

PvatT Tabke estes Thal This UST bras many shales wi
SISTLP. AT ses on: SIBTLE dente medrorim and
bye oad, GrstT Silber Slates Thal Covwnkre rem ped The deve
\ ATs WIT mudh ome deadly Than 9 prevous sepke

by alles a ROM To The UAT. This ROM prevosly veer

Tre EXCEPTION COM, Tupped ot anes

Unitete | S41, whide rtuns a DORVE NOT PRESET The.
FO 1 CCl es ORME NOT REND Bret a5 Thal wer

aan"Turn a SPO CCL ack vib a dud Seve wilh os BT

ine Thre same

The Mptery Drives:

QO4OR/204 |

Numercus ads mealion bith deves as swe Jrwe versons of
The 2CYC as erly as Ozteoer | 979. Each od} meats That
his deve will be avalible 9 Dune | 974. Save op deve WiTh
Wis description appears i Sune | 474, \ ancde This deve

\was shelved, Ay a by ‘Communications Eledivoves wn Thal Tome

21

frame dsTails The 2C41 wy some dest | quate: This s
a sage Zoppy ask Seve Whida TTTaches To The memmyy bus
eThe PET -32 © DOOM -1G, Wis oT as Las as

AAT have Ts own micropraessx

The mun PED reTaning,

s prided wm (22) 6332 ROM:
~The PET

Ing 6332 is

BEC

splenyTe bv
A de
Which ore wnsetTed AT
“16. ASiTonully, oe ex,
repbeed by aniTher ROM provided wi

Ten

» already existing

Dek Drive
Asexale
The dates privided Sarthe FET O01
aieses The 204 | byThe ame.
spon Ws reSerered as dover #4, Oskar
With Tre D040 os is di wéT wore ad arnwink The 2041
geAT mwi-Seppy bus o il 5 170K byes The
ny pre wos Sf aT ASHES
We tal aFe of This eres Vivpled Tal Tre 2041 miglar
Vane beds The sup baT\weey Te O31 ani the | SUC. With,
aT wikely, Pedras The 204 CAV
LUI AT owe design eos The 203i /\ SHO, bo am nw
anes War Wal Li and | SUC were dvehped anperatively
0€2 The HCHO dud deve Ui

“leo!

his te;w nGrmillon Thiet

2081

Ore art reporTed The existence of u single SAS deve

\sTed as emtel number 20S. Nb aTher inSonmalion og This

drive bas been Sound, This ou be another number Loe The

OBL Sisk Sene While T was under developmeaw.

4O4OLP

Research suggests Tis was To be a YOUO Uni The sume
as The SISTLP. thywever, naTon implies Thal This

Sine never make T pasT The proteType Store.

B0GO
George Page oedTons This 3)

Tre BCCI

sa IST \ildogle predecessor

Boal 2 drive. \E This drive does exist, T woud
58k Sormal as The SCGl

Wely read The same IBY 3740

Ts Tw,

SCCX tre Nb rove Sermon is avuillible ai

One.

This UAT, a preTeType Tak eaves make TT wweksT, con be

Bescrloed simply as a al DAES,

Des

oy

Tre O S'sa 1.5 MB ve we T as

The prolelype STge, See | dail understand why Conrni
349D ofTer The DACAC appeared,
Vaan only quess This deve ecTher SeaTured some new ID05 version

WOU retrace a 7.5

of is vedly a pvoetype of The awwercal DACA,

COMMODORE WORLD

Just For Starters

by fason Compan

CY,

GETTING TO KNOW THE SUPERCPU

It's a common adage that power corrupts, and
that absolute power corrupts absolutely. In the
right hands, however, power can be a wonderful
tool. CMDs SuperCPU is a valuable source of
power, but you may want a few pointers before
you commit yourselfto buying one—or, ifyou've
made up your mind, you might wanta little help
to make the most your new power,

What IS the SuperCPU?
‘The SuperCPU isa metal enclosure that attaches to
your C-64 or 128's cartridge expansion port. It is
somewhat taller than your computer, about two
inches deep, and is as long as possible without
ny additional expansion ports on your
na Insidetheboxisa Western Design 65816
CPU and JiffyROMs specifically designed for the
SuperCPU, The 65816 chip replaces the function of
the computer's original CPU brain chip. The
JilyROMS give your SuperCPU machine its own
JiflyDOS, which replac you may or
may not have installed in your machine at present.
The SuperCPU requires no configu
ie plugandplay" peripheral,
eon the 64, However, therearea few user-
configurable switches on the unit itself. The “unit
enable/disable” switch, is exactly that—when you

‘ation

place the switch in the “enable” position, upon
powering up or resetting, the SuperCPU will be
active, replacing your 64's CPU with its own 65816,
Note that thisswitch only takeseflect when you power
up or reset your computer—you cannot disable or
enable the SuperCPU's operation entirely on the fly,
The second switch controls the JiffyDOS
functions and can be toggled on the fly, With the

switchin the “enable” position, youwillhaveac
to the JiffyDOS wedge and shortcuts while using
your computer, and disk access will be greatly
improved for any JiflyDOS devices, If you find this
is problematic for certain applications, you can
simply shut off JifyDOS' operation. Switching off

COMMODORE WORLD

fly DOSreturnsyoutothestandard64 DOS, which
is relatively slow, but sometimes necessary to use,

The third switch controls the speed of the
SuperCPU. In the “Turbo” position, the switch
makes the SuperCPU operate in 20MHz
(MegaHertz) mode (your computer typically
operatesat 1MI1z). Itsounds pretty good, but before
you get too excited, it should be pointed out that in
alr

stnoevent will youactually getaspeedincrease
of a factor of 20, The reasons are technical, but it
sufficestosay thatitisa consequence ofdiminishing
returns—the more you speed up the machine, the
less you s
added unit ofspeed. Although, the performance at
20MiIzis nothing to sneeze at. Some programs do
notfanction properlyat 20M, so youcan usethe
speed switch in the “normal” position to make the
SuperCPU function at IMHz.

The last two details on the SuperCPU are the
urbo light and the reset button. The Turbo light
will beilluminated when the SuperCPU operates at
20MHz, and will go out when you switch to 1MHz,
disable the unit, or are accessing the disk (all disk
ess has to run at IMHz). The reset button will
reset the computer, but youneed to holdit formore
than halfa second or so. Any less than that, and the

button acts like the key.

a continued improvement for each

restore”

22

At present, the SuperCPU is only available for
5 8/128D users, this means t
when the SuperCPU is enabled, you will
automatically boot in C-64 mode, You can get to
128 mode only by disabling the unit. CMD plans
tomakea 128 version of the SuperCPUavailable—
it will be an add-on board for SuperCPUs,
containing an extra MegaByte of memory and
the logic necessary to make the SuperCPU
function in 128 mode as well as 64 mode,

Getting Ready To Rumble

Ifyou'reready toinstall yourSuperCPU, youshould
first read through the manual to be sure you fully
understand what you're about to do for your
machine. Themanualdiscussessofiwareandhardware
compatibility in detail, Foryourtrialrun, [recommend
that you disconnect and set aside all of your special
peripherals—anything in the user port, anything
inthe cassette port, ete. Even though theSuperCPU
hasacartridgeportpassthrough, Irecommendleaving
itempty whileyoutest your SuperCPU. Youmay leave
as many disk drives attached as you like as their
presence shouldn't affect your tests.

When you remove the SuperCPU from the
antistatic wrapping, check to make sure that all of
thetoggleswitchesarein the optimal configuration:
unit enabled, JiflyDOS enabled, Turbo enabled.
Carefully plug theunitintoyour cartridge port, and
switch your system on. Warm up the monitor fora
few seconds first because you'll see a special
SuperCPU boot animation come on-screen. This
will happen whenever you switch your machine on
with the SuperCPU enabled, or whenever you
perform a reset which enables the SuperCPU after
ithasbeen disabled. Aftertheanimation, youshould
beat a BASIC prompt much like those you've seen
manytimesbefore, slightly tered fortheSuperCPU
DOS witha 1996 copyright. Ifyou've gotten this far,
congratulations—you own one of the fastest
Commodore 64's in history.

Issue 18

Testing Your Wings

Now that you're ready to fly, you need to find
something that will make your computer soar. It's
awell-establishedfactthattheSuperCPUwillgreatly
enhanceGEOS, soifyouwantasure-fireexampleof
the new power at your disposal, you can get your
GEOS 2.0upandrunning undertheSuperCPU, It's
notassimpleasjust booting GEOS in Turbo mode,
however. ( needs support software to take
advantage ofthe SuperCPU. TheSuperCPU manual
spells out the process in detail, which basically
involves booting GEOS with turbo off, installing a
special patch on your GEOS boot disk (the patch is
included on a 1541-format disk), and installing
special patches if you are using a 1351 mouse or
CMDSmartMouse/SmartTrack. Afterthis process,
you can reset your system and, if all went well,
reboot GEOS in Turbo mode, with a great speed
increase. The patched mouse/trackball drivers
allow you to disable turbo mode on the fly, Quick
plug for lightpens: there's no special driver needed
and the Inkwell light pen continues to operate like
a champ at 20MH7z, This process may take a few
minutes, but when you're done, you'll havea GEOS
setup that snaps up windows and menus instantly
and operates a whole lot faster than you've ever
n before. The SuperCPU is highly compatible
3EOS software, and you'll probably get a
much better feel for the operating system if you
were previously not a big fan.

There are other ways to take advantage of the
SuperCPU as well. If you have non-GEOS
productivity software, it’s very likely to work
properly at accelera The most likely
hiccups will come in the form of failures to loz
lockups on disk access. Generally, these problems
can be alleviated by disabling turbo mode for disk
accesson booting, loading, and saving, andin more
extremecasesmightrequireyoutodisableiflyDOS
as well. These latter cases are very rare.

Ifyou enjoy music on the 64, you'll be pleased
to know that in almost all it will still play
loud and clear on the SuperCPU. Generally, the
only musicthatwillsoundincorrectat accelerated
speeds will be that which includes digitized
samples, as some sample players are CPU speed
sensitive, At 20MHz, the most brilliant sample
from your 1MHz setup will sound like a squeak if
the player is not properly written.

Games are an entirely different story.
Depending on the way a game is written, the
SuperCPU might make it a joy to play, because
the gameplay is enhanced by being significantly
faster. On the downside, the SuperCPU may
render the games impossible to play, because
either it is entirely too fast, or the game runs
improperlyat the high speed. In the mostextreme
cases, the game may fail to work at all. It’s up to

ed speeds

or

December 1996/January 1997

you to decide how much time and effort it is
worth to try to find the perfect mix of SuperCPU,
use to get games working optimally—knowing
that some will simply never work right.

The easiest games to test on the SuperCPU are
cartridge based games because loading is
effortless and instantancous, Game cartridges
themselves cannot be addressed at 20MHz, but
often the cartridge data is loaded in the 64's RAM
and run from there. This means the SuperCPU
canoperateat 20MHzafterthe cartridgeisloaded,
‘Twocase studies worth considering: Omega Race
on cartridge gained a small amount of speed,
enough to make the game smoother to play
(although it’s almost perfectly faithful to the
ready), butit didnot becomeridiculous;
entirely too fast at 20MHz: beer gla
fly down the bar with dizzying speed.

Once you leave the cartridge games behind
and start loading them from disk, a whole new
worldofpotential difficulty opens up. Disk-based
copy protection often employs a great deal of
tricks, which can include using undocumented
(or“illegal”)CPUinstructions. Theseinstructions
work properly on your computer's original CPU
but the 65816 was not designed to work the way
the undocumented instructions expect. These
schemes will almost always lock up your
computer. Other schemes will not work properly
at 20MHz, but you can get around that problem
by booting in non-Turbo mode, then enabling
‘Turbo after the game begins. Still others might
havea problem with JilyDOS, which will require
you to temporarily disable it as well.

The good news is that once you clear copy
protection, games tend to be much more
cooperative. It is fairly rare for actual in-game
code to use undocumented instructions, so

switching to Turbo modeis safe. However, many
games use theirown custom dis|
which can cause problems with Turbo mode. If
you find that games lock up whenever dis|
normally occurs, you may want to try re-running
the game but disabling turbo mode before the
disk a
access is easy to predict, this can be fairly simply.
In others, where it’s not at all clear when disk
access might occur (games with random events
that load from disk, or programs like Flight
Simulator, where it might load from disk at any
time), you may simply have to roll the dice and
hope you get lucky.
‘Thereisasavinggraceforsomegames, however,
Certain custom loadingroutinesare“smart” in that
they will not lock up the machine if they fail to load
the first time. Instead, they think there has been a
disk error and prompt you to try again. Games like
Access’ Echelon, a space flight simulator, or

ading routines

s happens. In games where the disk

23

Electronic Arts’ Project Firestart fit thisdescription,
You can use'Turbo mode with impunity, but when
you're prompted to replace the disk, just switch of
Turbo, let thedataload, thenre-enableTurbomode.

There is another way around disk based copy
protection failures with the SuperCPU. If you
have a freezer cartridge, the freezing capability
will be incompatible with the SuperCPU while
the SuperCPU is enabled, but if you disable the
unitentirely the freezer will work normally. Once
you clear the copy protection, freeze the game
and save it off to another disk, This frozen image
can be re-loaded under the SuperCPL

Setting Up Peripherals

Once you're comfortably up and running with the
SuperCPU, youcan thinkaboutaddingany external
peripherals to your system. Most of them will be
compatible with the SuperCPU, but just to be sure,
try each one with the SuperCPU without any of the
others plugged in, just to isolate any problems,
There is a list of known incompatible hardware in
the SuperCPU manual. The most notable of these
are the RAMDrive and the Action Replay. These
will still work if the SuperCPU is disabled, but fail
once theunitisenabled. Othersupercartridges will
generally work, but you may run into conflicts over
JiffyDOS and the supercartridge disk access, and
freezing will not function,

Final Notes
Herearea few pointers abouta SuperCPU system:
Putting the SuperCPU in “Normal” as opposed
to “Turbo” mode is NOT the same thing as
disabling the SuperCPU. Normal mode runs the
65816 CPU at IMHz, while disabling the
SuperCPU means that the 65816 is not active at
all

your computer's CPUisoperatinginstead.

Ifyou have JiffyDOS installed in your computer
already, theSuperCPUJiflyDOS supercedes itwhen
theSuperCPUisactive. IfyouswitchofftheJiflyDOS
‘on the SuperCPU, you will be using the original
DOS, not the JiffyDOS installed in your computer.
‘Those JiflyROMs only become again if you
disable or remove the SuperCPU itself.

You can make the SuperCPU work for you and
others. CMD hassomeprogrammingtipsthat range
from simple to in-depth to show you how to make
programs take better advantage of the unit.

Ifyou own Echelon or Total Eclipse, you're in fora
real treat, as these games look stunning on the
SuperCPU.fyouown Elite, you'reinforareal challenge
asthe game plays entirely too fast for comfort.

Th
of implications for your 64. It's worth a serious
look, and ifyou own one, it’s worth some time and
effort to discover the software that works best on it.
%)

twhich hasalot

SuperCPUisa complex

COMMODORE WORLD

HD Series SCSUHard Disk Drives:

HD-40 (40 MB) sesnne $249.00
HD-170, 170 MB (Special Edition)... ‘$299.00
HD-500, 500+ MB (Spocial Edition).

HD-1000, 1 GB (Special Edition)...

HD-2000, 2 GB (Special Edition)

FD-2000 (800K and 1.6 MB) ..
FD Real-Timo:Clock Option Kit
Box of 10, High Donsity Disks (1,6MB))
Box of 10, Enhanced Density Disks (3.2 MB)
NityoOs!
‘Specify computor serial number and drive model)
JittyDOS C64/SK-64 System
JittyDOS C-128/128-D System
‘Additional Drive ROM's

Wisi

80-column Monitors (Refurb)
Aprotek 3-Way Usor Port Expandor

Aprotek Usor Port Extension Cable

C-64 Computer (Refurb, wiJD)

C-64C Computer (Rotutb. wiJD)

C-64/64C Powor Supply (Repairable)

C-64/64C Hoavy Duty Power Supply (Repairable) $56.95
128-D Computer w/ Int. 1871 (Refurb, widD) CALL
C-128 Gomputor (Refurty, wiO) $179.00
G18 Computor (Roturb, wD. no PS) $129.00
6-128 Powor Supply (Ropairabio) $56.95
Gannon BIC-4100 Color Bubble Jot Printor.... $349.00
‘Commodore 1541 Disk Drives (Rofurty, wJO) -..... $89.00
‘Commadore 154 1-I Disk Drive (Refurb, w/JO) .. $108.00
Commodore 1571 Disk Drive (Raturb, w/ JD) ...». $119.00
‘Commadore 1702 40-column Monitor (Refurb)... $79,00
‘Commadora 1802 40-column Monitor (Refurb)... $139.00
GMD EX2+1 3:Port Cartridge Port Expander .... $34.95
CMD EX3 3-Port Cartridge Port Expander $29.95
GMD Gamopadioystick Controller ...nssssvone $24.95
CMD GeoCable I Print Cable 6tt/15i... $23.00/$34,00
CMD SmartMouse (1351 Compatible Mouse)... $49.95
Inkwell Light Pen Modol 170 $75.00
Monitor Cablos a CALL
Mouso Pad $2.95
MW.-350 Printor interlace (GKIBK Butter) $49.00/$60.00
Panasonic KXP-1150 9-pin Printor $169.00
Panasonic KXP-2023 24-pin Printer $229,00
Panasonic KXP-2135 24-pin Color Printer ... $319.00

aie UO Biue Reader V4.10 (SOGWAP) —

CMD Utitios 5
dlifyMON-64 (NIL Monitor).
‘The Compression Kit'94 (Mad Man)

ca iifties (Handy Goos Untiios) al

Desk Pack Pius $29.00
Dweezis Groatost Hits (NewTooks2 Stanp Labeit28) - $30.00
FONTPACK Plus $25.00
gaeay 64 or 128 (Speci Version $29.95
GeOBASIC .... $20.00
geoCale 64/128 "$40,001845.00
gooChart ne $29.00
‘ge0FAX $39.95
geoFilo 64/128 $40,001$45.00
gooMakeBoot (Makes Bootable copies) $12.95
gooProgrammer $45.00
geoPublish $40.00
GEOS 64 v2.0 ii $44.00
GEOS 128 v2.0 $49.00
geoSHELL V2.2 (CLI tor GEOS) $24.95
intornational FONTPACK, $25.00
Porfect Print LO tor GEOS (Lasor-liko output)... $49.95
RUN GEOS Companion $20.00

6-64 Scionco & Engineering

C128 Computer Aided Design

128 BASIC Training Guide
Gommodore 64 Tricks and Tips
GEOS Programmors Roteronce Guido
Graphies 800k tor tho C-64
Hitchhikers Guide to GEOS

Ideas for Uso on Your C-64

Printer Book for tho C84

Mapping the C64

Scanning & Video)
Mandyscannor
Pagotox
Video Digitizor
Videotox

SuperCPU-64) Accelerators 199.00

RAMLink PowerBacked HAM Disk

RAMLink Baso Model (OMB, No RAMCard) .... $149.00
RAMLink w/ MB RAMCard (Special!) $189.00
RAMLink w/t MB RAMCard (Special!)
RAMCard RTC Option Kit
RAMLink Battery Back-up (Optional)
Paral! Cable (RAMLnk to HD)
MIDEseSound
Digmastor
SID Symphony Stereo Cartridge
Sonus 64 Sequencer, MIDI Intertaco, Cabies ..... $99.00
Sonus 128 Sequencer. MIDI Intertaco, Cables ~. $99.00
Languages & Compilers
BASIC 64 Compiler (Abacus)
BASIC 128 Compilor (Abacus)
Bitz! 64 Compiler (Skyles)
Bitz! 128 Compilor (Skyles)
Buddy 64/128 Assomblor
‘Cobol 64 (Abacus)
Fortran 64 (Abacus)
Pascal 6$ (Abacus)

‘$17.00
$25.00

Cadpak 64 (Abacus)

Cadpak 126 (Abacus)

Chartpak 64 (Abacus)

Chartpak 128 (Abacus)

Data Manager 64 (Timoworks)

| Paint v1.5 (128, 80-col, 64K VDC) (Living Proo!)

[Port v1.54 (128, 80-col,, 68K VOC) (Living Proo!)

Personal Portfolio Manager (Abacus)

Pocket Whiter 1 (64) Digtal Sol.)

Pocket Whiter 2 (64/128) (Digtal Sol.)

Pocket Writer 3 (64 or 128) (Digital Sol)...

Pocket Planner 2 or Pocket Filer 2 (Digital Sol)

RUN Productivity Pak I 1, or It (Specity)

RUN Super Starter Pak 1541 or 1581

RUN Works

‘SEC Check Rogister 128

‘SuperScript 64 (Precision)

‘SuperScript 128 (Precision)

‘Suberbase 64 Version 3.01 (Precision)

‘Superbase 128 Version 3.01 (Precision)

‘SwittCaic 64 (Timeworks) ...

TWS 64 wiSpoller (Busy Bee)

TWS 128 w/Spellor (Busy Bee)

TWS Modules (HO/RLIlustrator)
communcations!

Aprotek MiniModom C-24 (C= ready, 2400 baud) $69.00

Aprotek MiniMogom G (C= ready, 1200 baud)... $50.00

Aprotek Com-Modem Adapter (for ext. modem) .. $19.00

Aprotek Com-Modem Adapter Cable $9.95

BOCA V.34 33.6K bps FaxModem ‘$169.00

BOCA V.34 w/Turbo232 & Cable $193.00

Commodore 1670 Modem (1200 baud) $14.95,

Dialogue 128 on.

Nova Term Version 9.6 ON DiSKit!

‘Turbo232 Cartridge (Up to 115K baud)

Turbo232 Modem Cable (DB9-DB25)

Atomino’
Ballistix

Blood Monoy

Chomp!

Day in the Lite of Prohistoric Man
Escape Route

Flummi's World

Heavenbound

Island of the Dragon

Lazer Duel

LUons of the Univorso

Maintrame

Monaco

Navy Seal

Rings of Medusa

RUN C128 Funpak

RUN C64 Gamopak

Shoot Up Pac (Gangste/Timo Travele)
‘Skate or Dio

Slaterman

The President is Missing!

The Three Stooges

Tie Break Tennis

Total Eclipse

Waikerz

Wings of Circo

¢ Major Credit Cards Accepted «ee
Mastercard * Visa « Discover * American Express

P.O. Box 646

CAD

East Longmeadow, MA 01028

Creative Micro Designs, Inc.

Info: (413) 525-0023
Fax: (413) 525-0147

Join the Telecommunications Revolution.

get

on the Information Super Highway TODAY!

+ Easy-to-use —novice user configuration

+ Now supports Uencode and UUdecode
and converts fies on disk rina butler Also
ASCII <> PETSCII and PETSCII to Unix.

+ Protocal support: Zmodem - up/down load,
resume (crash recovery), streaming to
butter; Ymodem batch, Ymodem-g;
Xmodem-1k, Xmodem-1k-g(to butter)
Xmodem-CRC; Punter; Kermit; Wxmodem,

* Supports High Speed Interfaces like
‘SwiftLink for baud rates up to 38,400 baud

+ Supports ANSI colorigraphics, VT102, and
VTS2 in 80 col, Plus C= color graphics and
ANSI color in 40 col, All emulation
modules now load trom one window.

Now Just

$29.95
(Specify 5.25" or 3.

5" disk)

+ New faster 80 column modes: Sof-80 on
C-64 (enhanced scrolling w/ REU); and
25 or 2B-line C-128 VDC 80-col, mode,

+ Now use any memory device as a butfer
including: 17x REU, RAMLink partion,
GeoRAM, C128 VOC, BBGRAM, and
internal C64 memory.

+ New text capture faatures:Capturo tox! on-
line and store in any device: High-speed
transters directly into memory and now
retain butter contents with battery/power
backed RAM devices such as RAMLink.

+ Enhanced ul featured Text editor can now
foad/save files from the butfer and has an
integrated script compiler,

+ Script language for automatic operations

+ Simple BBS mode -claln downloading

+ Supports real-time clocks in CMD devices

+ All new user's manual

Increase Speed Up to 1500% while

retaining 100% compati|

ility

Note: Computer SerialiNumber Required for G64/64C Orders

COMmMonDORe
woRlLpb

THE NEWS MAGAZINE FOR C-64 & 128 USERS
For more than two years, Commodore World has been keeping
the C-64/128 market alive with up-to-date information from
some of the brightest minds in the Commodore community.
From beginner to expert, CW has something for everyone,
Columns regularly cover: Programming, what's new, reviews,

games, GEOS.

lecom, projects and much more! Stop listening

to everyone telling you what you can't do with a Commodore
and see what the latest innovations can do for you!

Subscribe for only $29.95
Canada $35.95, EC Countries $45.95, Other Foreign $57.95

Shipping and

Handling Charges

Continental United States

‘UPS

Order Subtotal Ground

2nd
Day

Noxt
Foreign

$0.01 10 $19.99 $450

$13.00

CALL | $1500 | $5.00 | CALL

$550
$650
$7.50

$10.00

'$20,00 to $29.99
$30.00 to $5

$360.00 to $140.90
"$150.00 to $209.99

$17.00
$19.00 |
$21.00 |
| $25.00

7.00 | CALL

CALL
CALL
CALL

CALL

$17.00

$35.00 | $20.00

$300.00 to $799.99 $15.00

$29.00

caLL | $40.00 | $25.00 |

{$800.00 and up $20.00

CALL

CALL | $5000 | $38.50

UPS C.0.0. add $5.00 (US/PR only)

Policies: CMD accopts: Major Credit Cards, Money Orders, COD and Personal Chocks.
Porsonal Checks are held 3 weeks. Customer is responsible for shipping charges on

refusals. Most items are stock, contact CMD for firm delivery. Returns for merchandise
credit only within 30 days with prior authorization. Credits are less shipping, handling,
taxes, customs, duties, and a 10% restocking charge. No refunds or credits on opened
software. All prices and specifications are subject to change without notice.

Special Offer Extended

Onane eer most advanced storage devices
available for the C-64 and C128 com PUIEr

4 a Power-Backed Expandable RAM-disk Drive
in * Fastest possible method of storage with capacities up to 16 MB. Power and
battery back-up retains data even when computer is turned off!
Equipped with CMD DOS for flexibility and optimum compatibility, RAMLink
can emulate multiple 1541, 1571, & 1581 disks or use CMD Native partitions.
Ideal for use with GEOS as RAM Disk, RAM Expansion or both.
Easily connects to cartridge/expansion port yet behaves and operates like a
super-fast disk drive with built-in JiffyDOS and SWAP features.
Built-in Pass-thru port for other cartridges, RAM-Port for REU's & GEORAM
and Parallel port for fast access to CMD hard drives.

WAM Si/B9"" sisi sw) NIB) 220°"

a dl Boies y 24 i26e

Full Featured High Density 3.5" Disk Drive FD eries
* The FD-2000 uses modern High Density diskettes (1.6 MB) just like Pentiums pe pS
or the Power PCs. The FD-2000 is the highest capacity floppy drive available
for the C-64/128 and is more compatible with existing software than the 1581!
¢ Equipped with CMD DOS for compatibility and speed, the FD-2000 also reads
and writes 1581 disks, and can emulate multiple 1541 or 1571 disks.
¢ Easily connects to the serial bus just like any other drive and features
JiffyDOS for greatly enhanced speed on JiffyYDOS equipped computers.
* Features: SWAP 8/9 switch, Device # switches (8-15), GEOS compatibility
software, FD Utilities disk and very small size (7.625"L x 4.75" W x 2.375"H).

7 aa DY)

or ID re oni 9) 9) 9) Only 35 ‘|S =a ee ioe soul Tine Slosis add p40

HD eries Fast SCSI Hard Disk Drives for the C-64/128
ecceanaee] - HD Series Hard Drives are available in capacities up to 2 GB, are fully partitionable,

and can emulate 1541, 1571, & 1581 disks as well as provide Native partitions which
can be up to 16 MB in size and utilize MS-DOS-style subdirectories. HD's connect
easily to the serial bus or to RAMLink via a high-speed parallel cable. They are many
times faster than any other type of physical disk drive. Includes built-in JiffyDOS,
b SWAP feature and Real-Time Clock. HD's offer superior compatibility with most
commercial software including BBS, Productivity and GEOS. And with new pricing,
y HD Series drives offer the lowest cost per megabyte of any C64/128 storage device.
Imagine... No more thumbing through endless piles of disks looking for the right one
— use your hard drive like a huge file cabinet to organize and store hundreds or
thousands of disks. Each 40 MB holds up to 240 -1541 disks. Get yours Today!

AONB Only s249-2

SAO Mes 299) , BUY es
A; ODOM) GAMA , 4099 MW

* Only valid at time of RAMLink purchase.
Offers valid only in U.S. and Canada through February 28, 1997. Prices do not include shipping and handling. Pricing and spec's
subject to change without notice. See our main ad for shipping prices and policies. May not be combined with any other offers.

McRat/The Zinj Complex
Compilation

Gystal Software

The McRat/The Zinj Complex
Compilation features two brandnew
games from Crystal Software.
Normally, when you purchase
compilations of this type you expect
onegameto be better than the other,
but with Crystal Software’s
Compilation, you get two great
games for your money.

McRat

McRat was designed by a former
demo artisan, apparent from the
very first scene. As in a demo, you
must press the space bar to advance
from the intro screen to the game
screen. Theintroscreenalso features
ascrollerin which youcan readsome
text from the author. Additionally,
the entire game isaccompanied bya
pleasing musical composition,

McRat is a platform style game.
The object of the game is to guide
MeRat to the pieces of food located
on each of the level’s platforms.
Monsters are located on each of the
platforms guarding the food. MeRat
losesalifeand returns tothe bottom
ofthe screen ifhe touches any of the
monsters.

A timer adds to the difficulty of
the game. I found it extremely
difficult to advance through the
levels within the allotted time

COMMODORE WORLD

frames, so I reached for my Action
Replay cartridge. Using the Poke
Finder feature I was able to give
McRatanunlimited number oflives.
Even with immortality, once I
reached the higher levels, the game
was still quite a challenge because
the food is located in hard to reach
places requiring almost impossible
jumpingskills. I mustadmit, [found
this game pretty frustrating until 1
became immortal. If you're lucky
enough to possess an Action Replay
cartridge you can really become
addicted to this game. This game
requires a great deal of practice
coupled with an abundance of
patience.

The Zinj Complex

Once you've had your fun with
McRat, you can turn the disk over
and enjoy the thrills of The Zinj
Complex. The Zinj Complex isevery
bit as enjoyable as McRat. At the
moment, I really can’t decide which
game I prefer and it’s a good thing 1
don’t have to choose!

In The Zinj Complex you take on
the role of the “crack-specialist of
the secret’ American anti-
madscientist team.” Your mission is
to infiltrate the Zinj Complex and
riditofhostileenemieswhilelooking
for large blue diamonds rumored to
exist. Youare equipped witha “supa-
nme-stun-o-matic mark 3” and a

safety cloak. Even with these two
devices, is of the essence due to
thetoxicgases oozing from thewalls.

The layout of the game reminded
me of a Nintendo game called
“Smash TV", Looking at the game
screen it feels as if you are looking
down from the ceiling of the room.
Each room contains crates and
enemies. The enemies will zap away
your cloak ifyou run into them. The
crates contain lift cards, key cards,
booby traps, and energy boosters. 1
think they are also supposed to
contain diamonds, although I was
unable to find any the first five or so
times! played. Once you'vedepleted
the room of enemies and searched
itscratesyoucan move onto thenext
room. Some doors require the use of
the key cards.

I love playing Zinj. It features
some really fantastic music.
However, I quickly found it
frustrating due to the time
limitations. And, unfortunately,
my Action Replay cartridge
couldn't help me out. | felt there
wasn't enough time allotted to
complete the requirements of the
game. Perhaps, [just need to brush
up a little on my game playing
skills.

Inthe McRat scroller the author
states that McRat is his first
attempt at creating a Commodore
Game. He says he decided to

26

attempt programming rather than
sitby passively playing the games.
I'dlike to thank him for his efforts.
McRat is a pretty good first
attempt at game programming. If
only we could so something about
those time constraints! Maybe
next time.

- Sherry Freedline

Jordan Vs. Bird One On
One

When Electronic Arts hit the
computer software scene in the
early 1980s, one of their most
highly touted products was the
basketball game One On One.
Back in 1983, two of the biggest
names in the sport were Julius
Erving (Dr. J) and Larry Bird. EA
put both of them in a half-court
duel and a legend was born. Some
5 years later, when EA decided to
do a sequel, the face of the game
had changed somewhat. Dr. J was
retired, but a phenom named
Michael Jordan had been turning
some heads for a few years, so he
was tapped to replace Dr. J in the
new version.

Jordan Vs. Bird puts you at the
controls of either player in a half
court battle. At your disposal are
fakes, spin moves, dunks, jump
shots, fadeaways, and long-range
three point bombs. In the main
one-on-one game, you can control

Issue 18

either player against a computer
or human opponent. The
computer comes in a variety of
difficulty levels, which should
keep you challenged for some
time—at least, until you figure out
the computer's game playing
logic. In this game, as in any head-
to-head game, nothing beats alive
opponent,

Fans of the original One on One
game will be happy to know that
Instant Replays are still around,
although in my opinion Jordan Vs.
Bird is less generous with them
than it could be, It’s a thrill to see
your great moves spelled out for
youso you can appreciate them, A
newaddition to the game isa stats
breakdown, to let you know how
well you are shooting and make it
easier to determine if you need a
new strategy

Ifyou'renewtothegameand
to warm up, or are looking for
competition that's not quite so
confrontational, the game includes
three-point shooting and slam dunk
contests. In the three-point match,
you have a short period of time to
shoot long-range shots from five
different positions on the court.
While it can get tedious, it's one of
the best ways to perfect along-range
shot for use in pressure game
situations. The Slam Dunk
competition is a bit different. You
choose a dunk to attempt from a
selection screen, and then try your
best to replicate its style, If you're
looking for flash on the court, thisis
thewaytobrushup.A team ofjudges
rates your performance. In both
games, a small group can compete.

December 1996/January 1997

Jordan Vs. Bird, like
predecessor, has all the trappings
ofreal basketball, witha shot clock
and fouls. The court is more
realistic and colorful than the
original game, and along with the
players, feels larger. The players
are more detailed than the first
Dr. J and Bird were. Technically,
the game is quite impressive and
represents some good steps
forward from the original.

Progress did not come without
cost, however, Because there are
so many moves you can employ,
right down to step fakes,
controlling the players can be a
bit awkward at times, I find that
the players feel sluggish at times,
especially compared to the agile
performance of Dr. J and Bird. On
the other hand, the computer
opponent in the original lost its
challenge after extended use,
working out the differences in
Jordan Vs. Bird is worth the time.

If you've never played basketball
on the C-64, Jordan Vs. Bird is
good introduction to detailed half:
court action, If you're a fan of the
original, you'd do well to ch
this game, but expect to re-learn
some of your old tricks, Jordan Vs.
Bird shows its age in a very visible
(ordan still had a bit of hair at

its

out

We

this point, reflected in the Jordan of

the game), but that shouldn’t
dampen your enjoyment.
+ Jason Compton

Karnov
In Karnov, you find yourself taking
on the role of a Ru

n circus
ircus in

performer. You've left the

27

seek of an ancient treasure, but as

with most ancient treasures of

arcade-action games, the treasure is
guarded by a host of unpleasant
ures,

A
resourcesat your disposal to combat
your enemies, Not surprisingly,
you'refitand limber enough tojump
considerable distances over danger,
onto platforms and the like to get
around your enemies. Somewhat
more surprisingly, you're able to
breathe fireballs atyouradversaries.
And of course, what arcade game

a circus performer you havea few

would be complete without a set of

powerups at your disposal, which
do anything from creating a tall
ladder handy for escaping danger
as well as attaining difficult heights,
or getting to a special area, or
capturing more powerups) to
increasing your firepower and
granting you special temporary
abiliti

you're anatypical
circus performer, Your quest will
take you through a number of levels
successive difficulty. Karnov's
graphics are highly detailed,
acrificing some color for more
crispness and detail. The action is
side-scrolling(perha
as“ Super Mario” style). Enemiescan
come at you from all directions and
you'll often find yourself blindsided
in a nearly impossible situation,
unable to shoot fireballs fast enough
to take out your opponents. Karnov
has a lot of variety to its gameplay,
but you can work out precise
patterns, as the same enemies tend
toshow up ifyou play sections ofthe
game identically. In other words—

psbetterknown

if you know the three ostrich-riders
are going to come at you as soon as
youreach therightedgeofthescreen,
be prepared to either turn, run, and
fire or leap out of the way. I suspect
that you will, just as I did, ha
play the first level with this strate;
in order to clear it. The frustrating
part is that in later levels, you have
more progress to lose each time you
lose a life,

Karnov is a very faithful
implementation of the original
arcade version, right down to the
map-progress screen at the start of
every level. The enemies are just as
nasty and just as hard to kill—the
original, just like the 64 version,
could very easily end your game
shortlyafterit be Luckily, you're
not losing quarters as I did, and you
can learn the behavior of your
opponents and work against them.
Selecting powerups is basically as it
worked in the arcade, with the
exception of not having the second
joystick button available to you—
sinceyoucanaccumulate powerups,
a highlight box scrolls over them
with the movement of your joystick,
Of course, the movement of your
joystic

to

Iso moves Karnov, sosome

snea
you want to get the exact powerup
you were looking for.

Few would accuse Data East of
really pushing the envelope of the
64's capabilities, but they did turn
out a number of quality arcade
conversions in their day. Karnoy
definitely stands as one of the
better jobs.

ky coordination is required if

Jason Compton

%)

COMMODORE WORLD

The Loadstar disk magazine has
been around for some time, so it
only makes sense that they've
accumulated enough quality
material to put together large
compilations, Dubbed — the
“Compleat” series, they represent
some of the best work of the
Commodore community overyears.

Loadstar often comes with
crossword puzzles, and this disk
is a collection of all 220 or so
they've offered. Running under
the custom crossword software by
Barbara Schulak, with a menu
interface by Loadstar's Fender
Tucker, The Compleat Crossword
asy to navigate. The main menu
fers an information file about
the compilation (as well as details
of other Loadstar products you
can order), a choice of music to be
played while you crossword, and
then the master list of puzzles.
1541 users will have to flip the
disk to see all of the puzzles
able, while 1581/FD users
can read all 220 puzzles off of the
disk at once.

The crossword puzzles come in
two basic varieties, those in a
15x15 grid and those in a 13x13

aval

COMMODORE WORLD

LoadStar’s
Compleat Crossword

grid. Many of the crosswords are
of the “general interest” variety as
you would find in newspapers, buta
number have themes ranging from
Star Trek to sports to musicals.
Difficulty ranges wildly—Fender
Tucker's puzzles sit atop the
difficulty heap.

The crossword puzzle gaming
softwareshowsyouthegridandallows.
youtomoveyourcursorthrougheach
box of the crossword. At the bottom
of the screen are windows for Across
and Down clues. Their operation is
very intuitive—for example, when
you first load a crossword, your
cursor is at the upper-left hand
square. The clues for the first word
across and first word down (those
that branch from the square you are
highlighting) appear in the clue
windows. If you move your cursor
right, along the first word across,
you'll see a new down clue as you've
moved to a new down word.

You are free to work on any
section of the puzzle you prefer at
any time. Ifyoufind you'restumped,
you can ask for a single-letter hint
for the box you're on. Just hit F5,
and the box you're over will show
the letter you've been searching for.

If at any time you want to check
your progress, you can ask the game
to verify your solutions. If your
letters are in the right place, they'll
stay there, Any unfilled orincorrect
boxes will be turned into
checkmarks. You can also clear the
puzzle, or give up and ask for the
complete solution, at any time.

One of the neatest features of
the software is that you can save
and load your progress in any
puzzle, in case you get stumped or
simply have to work on something
else or shut off the computer,

The program comes with a
handful of SID musics which can be
played (or shut off) while you work
on the crosswords, You are free to
add any SID musics, 11 blocks or
smaller, to the pack,

Overall, I'm very impressed by the
quality of the crossword puzzles. |,
personally, am notan avid crossword
puzzle player because despite what I
consider to be a strong vocabulary, |
get frustrated with the sneaky tricks
played by puzzleauthors. Whilethere
are certainly some sneaky tricks to be
found in these (particularly the
aforementioned Tucker puzzles), I
have to admit that having clues close

28

at hand is a great help and
encouragement to stick with the
puzzle, I'malso very pleased that you
can “mark” puzzles as you complete
them, so you don’t waste your time
trying to find a new puzzle only to
discover you've solved the puzzle in
question already. Given that thereare
75 crosswords distinguished only by
the name “Crossword # X”, you'll
appreciate it as well.

It's worth noting that the software
is highly compatible with expanded
hardware. In addition to being
available in both 5 1/4" and 3.1/2"
disk formats, the Compleat
Crossword is compatible with the
SuperCPU, would be quite simple to
install and run froma hard drive, and
is even fully functional on a
Commodore 65 in C-64 mode, (You
canevenusetheC-65'sfully directional
arrow pad).

If you're not a sworn enemy of
crossword puzzles, you'd do well to
investigate the Compleat Crossword.
Barb Schulak and company have put
agreat deal of effort into developing a
greatsoftware interface anda terrific
set of puzzles.

-Jason Compton

Issue 18

™ Get PERFECT TAX™ now

PERFECT TAX and relax on April 15th...

© FOURTEENTH SUCCESSFUL YEAR! ¢ MANY THOUSANDS ALREADY IN USE!
© Your Simple Answer to all Tax Acts changes through 1996

+ PERFECT TAX is the quick, correct, easy way to do your taxes * Absolutely up-to-date with the Tax Reform Act

of 1986 through 1996 and + Simplest tax retum preparation program available - at any price

+ Single-keystroke form-to-form change + Automatically calculates and transfers data from every FORM and

‘Schedule to the FORM 1040+ Simply answer the questions - PERFECT TAX calculates retum, tax due or amount

of refund due yous Automatically elects the greater of Standard or Itemized deductions « Prints data to all FORMS

or Schedules you need for your complete return - ready to sign and file » Highly acclaimed by tax pros, CPA's and

tax preparers, PERFECT TAX Is easy to understand and a pleasure to work with, Available for Commodore 64,

Commodore 128 and IBM and IBM Compatible PCs,

+ PERFECT TAX is fully screon-prompted, menu-driven
and easy to use. System includes comprehensive User's
manual with helpful tutorial example and forms library.

+ With a single keystroke, PERFECT TAX instantly recalcu-
lates your entire retum when you change any item.

+ PERFECT TAX data files can be stored on disk.

* PERFECT TAX yearly updates are available at 50%
discount to registered PERFECT TAX users,

* PERFECT TAX is an essential addition to your
personal software library - and best of all, it's tax

organize your data * Built-in calculator feature
accumulates input andentors total» 32 F-Key functions
achieved with 1 or 2 keystrokes. * Fast, complote tax
calculations - 30 forms in under 2 seconds (most
returns in under 1 second) * On-line pop-up Help
‘menus * Full calculation-override capability * Follows
IRS text & line numbers exactly * Exclusive contoxt-
sensitive Datachek™ pinpoints omissions - and alerts
you to effects of your input » Our exclusive Current
Values Display constantly reflects all changes with
your input + In Planning Mode all unnecessary text
input prompts are eliminated. Only numeric input is
prompted for. New for 1996: 1040A and Schedule 1,

+ PERFECT TAX also prints directly onto IRS forms, deductible.

TAX PLANNING RETURN PREPARATION FULL-FEATURED
+ Most powerful program features available - at any PERFECT TAX PRINTS THE INCOME TAX DEPRECIATION
price * Supports RAMdisk + Prints tho input sheets to. RETURN FOR YOU: PERFECT TAX 64- SUPPORT

prints pgs. 1 & 2 of the FORM 1040 and
Schedules A, B,C, D, E, Hand SE as wall as
FORM 2441, 3903, 6251, 8615 and 8815 on
IRS forms or on blank computer paper for use
with transparent overlays .. 17 in all
PERFECT TAX 128 - supports all of the above
forms plus Schedules EIC, F and R & FORMS
2106, 2119, 2210, 3800, 4136, 4255, 4562,
4684, 4952 and 8396. . . 31 in’alll All other
forms and schedules are considered in the
calculation, PERFECT TAX features direct
screen input using fast ten-key style on the
Commodore 128.

Self-contained Depreciation program
Calculates and prints complete listing of
doprociable assets....all classes...any length
Iifo...traditional methods plus *old" rules, ACRS,
MACRS....Hall-year, mid-quarter & mid-month
conventions, Schedule of assets attaches as a
detailed, printed supplement to the FORM 4562.

Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 are
Trade-marks of Commodore Business
Machines Corp. IBM is a Trademark of
International Business Machines Corporation.

2. SR EICA, plan Sohedute H. Complete 1996 Edition: perFecT TAX 64°69 PERFECT TAX 128 8 IBM S79
TO ORDER Call Toll Free 1-800-525-5611 24 Hours from anywhere outside Dallas. In Dallas Call 972/386-6320.

VISA, MasterCard, Checks, Money Orders & COD Orders Accepted (Add 3% surcharge for credit card processing) (Texas residents add ‘sales tax) (Add $7,00 COD) ($7.00 Shipping)
Financial Services Marketing Corporation * 625 North Dallas Bank Tower * 12900 Preston Road * Dallas, Texas 75230

[+] UPGRADE YOUR COMMODORE:

Refurbished Hardware New Hardware

Cw & RUN BACK ISSUES

Monitors. Drives ne Other . oliew APROTEK Accessori For years, RUN Magazine provided Commodore Users with a great source
1701 1541/1 5 - 4,94 :24-2400 Baud (64/128) $74.95, ‘
ree ot easteteel- clas stigeer ee aoe ( os ofinformation, and now CMD has given you Commodore World. Don'tlet this
802 $174.95 i540” $119.95 128. $178.95 ConvertA-Com $29.98 | valuable information slip away—fill in the voids in your library now!
e020 $199.95 1571 $159.05 1280 §32595 New CMD/LMS Accessori as
soza S20598 NSD2 Stags ye60' “saeas iyOOS CEAISXES Syston $0085 RUN Magazine Back Issues
oss $2549 too1seD sive 1670 S2895 Coe earn el ettarnali cored Any 3 issues for $12.00, any 6 for $18.00,
Mona's $44.95+ Teso Eat = $3495 RAM Se 'g20080 Ow OME $274.98 meaty: 12 tononty 24:00)
clw1MB $319.95 cwaMB $478.95! | RMJANB9 January 1989 RMJUNSO June/July 1990
IBocks$10-$15 Printer Interte $49.95+ Real Time Clock (Optional)
Poe aeese Gomi Famond Cariige Sones” Peenagre ek OPO aoe | | RMFEBSS February 1989 RMDEC90 December 1990
Repairs SASK Super Snapshot vt $49.95 NEW Super Snapshot v5.22 $84.95 RMMAY89 May 1989 RMJAN91 Jan/Feb 1991
Manuals $7 Super Grafix Jr. $39.95 1750 Supercione REU 512K $169.95 RMJUN89 June 1989 RMJUN91 JuneJuly 1991
— RMJUL89 July 1989 RMJAN92 Jan/Feb 1992
|BoxW 60515, N. Sheridan Mall RO. 15 day Warranty On Roturbished Hawr, RMAUG89 August 1989 RMMAR92 March/April 1992
|Downsview, Ont. Canada M3L 1B0 Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery RMSEP89 September 1989 RMMAY92 May/June 1992
[Tax-Canada + 7%GST, Ontario +8% P! 1996 Catalogue Disk (64 Format) — $2. RMOCT89 October 1989 RMJUL92 July/August 1992
me RMSP89 —Spocial Issue 1989 RMSEP92 — Sep/October 1992
RMJAN9O January 1990 RMNOV92 Nov/December 1992
RMMAYS0 May 1990
Shipping (sues - U.S, $3,00, Canada $5.00, Foreign $15.00;

12 issuos U.S, $5.00; Canada $7.00; Foreign $20.00.

Commodore World Back Issues

FREE CATALOG

With Tons of Commodore Stuff!

$4.95 each, or any 3 for only $12.00

CW1 — Commodore World Issue 1 CW9 Commodore World Issue 9
r — CW2 — Commodore World Issue 2 CW10 Commodore World Issue 10
rite to: FREE Lo CW3 — Commodore World Issue 3. CW11 Commodore World Issue 11
te G CW4 Commodore World Issue 4 CW12 Commodore World Issue 12
Parsec, Inc. CWS5 Commodore World Issue 5 CW13 Commodore World Issue 13

CWE — Commodore World Issue 6 CW14 Commodore World Issue 14

P.O. Box 111- CW CW7 Commodore World Issue 7 CW1 Commodore World Issue 15

Salem, MA 01970-0111
USA

Shipping: U.S. and Canada $2.00 for first issue, plus
$1.00 per additional issues.; Foreign $5.00 per issue.

TO ORDER CALL 1-800-638-3263

29

December 1996/January 1997 COMMODORE WORLD

Graphic Interpretation

I would like to begin this article by confidently

stating that the Commodore's Graphic
Environment Operating System, a. S, will
carry C-64 and C-128 users well into the next
millennia. This sounds obvious, I know, but it is
true, and the criticisms I hear to this kind of
assertion I find veryamusingindeed. Forexample,
when some IBM user digs the elbow in and says,
“a C-64 as in AD?” or “GEOS, yeah, archaeology
isfun” then let me assure you, remind them that
IBM can mean incredibly big money. IBM and
Macintosh are indeed the main players in the
computer scene; however CMD and other
companies are keeping the 64 not only alive and
well, but expanding in its capabilities while
maintaining very affordable prices (Windows 95
UPGRADE alone is over $100—GEOS, $35). My
best friend Bill and my niece Adrianna are new C-
128 and C-64 owners respectively, (with a little
help from old buddy/Unele Paul) love their
systems and are already looking to expand
because of GEOS' capabilities, Read on for this
edition of Graphic Interpretation you'll learn
abouta filemanagement tool that will makeusing
GEOS even more convenient.

GEOS has many functions and features that
are strikingly similar to the latest high-tech
operating systems such as the very popular
Windows 95 by Microsoft. 1 can state this
confidently because my workplace gave me the
opportunity to take classes for Windows 95. To
my amazement I realized that 1 could have
practically taught half of that Introduction to
Windows class; knowing GEOS made ita snap. A
great comparison can be made of the deskTops
that each system has: both have application and
file icons, a trash can/recycle bin, command

COMMODORE WORLD

by Psd Sullivase

DUAL TOP 2.6

menus and changeable backgrounds, to name a
few. This only carries so far, however, as the
desktop lacks the multitasking and speed
bit counterpart. As a result,
over the years many geoProgrammers put on
their thinking caps and produced such gems as
Switcher 1.3 (discussed in World#15),CMD also
responded to the need with the amazing,
“gateWay” which enables the user to resize
windows and even task-switch. | would like, in
this issue, to take the opportunity to introduce
youtoanother programming masterpiece entitled
“Dual Top 2.6.”

This amazing shareware gem can supplement
your use of both the deskTop and gateWay. As
the name implies, it is a deskTop alternative.
Dual Top can be activated manually by double-
clickingitsicon, or placingit right after Configure
forit to auto-execute. It is smaller in size than the
deskTop (27K compared to deskTopis 35K) and
it derives its name from its most prominent

30

feature, the ability to simultaneously display two
disk directories in side-by-side vertical columns.
In striking contrast to the deskTop is maximum
display capacity of merely eight icons per page
y border files on one disk, the Dual Top
he first 15 files on either or both of the two
disk directory columns. In these unforeseen days
of multi-megabyte RAMdrives and high-density
disk drives for Commodore user, you are bound
to have far more than 15 files on a disk. No
problem! Just point-click the appropriate arrow,
and you'll be smoothly scrolling down the file
listing, no deskTop pages to turn, and no waiting
for icons to redraw. It must be pointed out,
however, that the Dual Top was designed to work
with GEOS 2.0andaRAM expansion unit. Earlier
versions of GEOS and/or an unexpanded system
will not support Dual Top. In the software
documentation for Dual Top, Mr. Murdaugh
describes the deskTopis limitations in drive
support. The kernel design is such that, although
it can support four drives, disk or RAM, it views
them as two pairs of drives, A,B and C,D. A
barrierexists between the two that Mr. Murdaugh
likens to “two sides of a river with no bridge
between them,” Berkeley Softworks/GeoWorks,
applications (including the deskTop) complicate
the matter further by operating only within A,B,
the first set. Drive C can be accessed, but only by
swapping with Drive A or B. Here is where Dual
Top builds the bridge.” The kernel can access the
A,B and C,D drive sets in the same manner, thus
eliminating the need forswapping drives to access
a third drive, Although the file icons are not
visible, each of the filenames are just as accessible
as the icons on the deskTop. Point-click over a
filename and it will highlight. Double-click the

Issue 18

filename and it will open or activate, Also, the
command menu bar is at the top of the screen, as
with the deskTop. These command options have
several noteworthy functions among them.

Is drive-swapping, i.e. changing device
numbers an issue for you? It isn’t under Dual
‘Top, “configure” is the third option on the menu
bar, and the position of drive A, B or C can be
switched in an instant, without needing to enter
theactual Configure application! This easy access
to all three drives clears the way for the file
management features. Between the two drive
directory windows are ten buttons, the top three
indicating which drives are A, B, and C. The next
seven perform various functions on selected files,
in the open “Source” window. “All” selects every
file in the Source window while “Clear” will
ry file. “Info” will open the familiar
window seen in deskTop that gives rel
and the icon for any file, and “Print,”
and “Delete” are obvious, sol will moveon. Ihave
saved the best for last: “copy.”

Copying a file, multiple files or an entire disk
hasnever been easier. In the Dual Top the tedious
chore of flipping through pages is replaced by
smooth scrolling through the directory, and you

deselect

ename”

C6:

Everythingfor Commodore Computers
Sell» Trade» Repair» Buy
1420 County Rd. 914
Burleson, TX 76028

817-295-7658
817-447-6974 - Voice/FAX line

ALL STORE ITEMS HAVE A 90 DAY WARRANTY. IF, FOR SOME
REASON YOU ARE DISSATISFIED IN YOUR PRODUCT, YOU MAY
RETURN IT FOR REPLACEMENT OR STORE CREDIT ONLY.
‘SORRY, NO REFUNDS,

CPU

The Commodore 128/64 Power Us.

CPU is a quarterly publication that for
two years now has kept its readers

yor

SH

abreast of new developements and
helped those to get more out of their
investments,

Sample/Back Issues: $3.50

6 Issue Subscription: $15,00 us
International: $27.00 us
Canada and Mexico: $21.00 us

Ushering the Commodore user into the

December 1996/January 1997

C64, 1541, J-S+Sft. - $99

We curry a full line of hard-
ware, software & maga-
zines, both new & used, in-
cluding European items.
Our flat-rate repairs in-
clude both parts & labor.
Call for details.

P.O, BOX 1817
98584

may copy between any combination of drives
(swap-free!). Open a disk by clicking its button,
(left or right window, it doesn’t matter) and the
directory appears in the “Source” window, Note
that when you click the opposite window, it will

become

Source,” and the first window you
opened will now read “Destination,” Do not let
this confuse you, just click on the drive that you
want to copy to, and then click again anywhere
over the original “Source” window. Your target
disk window now should read “Destination.”
Choose your files, click “copy,” and away you go!
The last two features on the menu bar are
“Auto Dir(ectory)” and “Auto Sort.” The first of
these will open up the directory ofa selected drive
every time you enter Dual Top. I have mine pre-
set todrive B, whichis my RAMdrive. “Auto Sort”
will put a pre-sel
alphabetical order. This is very handy for long
ectories, and Imust also point out that it sorts
'y appear on Dual Top, but does
not change their actual location on the disk. So,
autosort boot disks without worrying
about disrupting their booting capability.
Other features that make the Dual Top
particularly convenient to use include its

ted drive

directory into

c

the na s the:

yes, you

4/1541 Repair - $40
*SpEciAL*

keyboard shortcuts, gadgets, gauges, and
accessibility. Disks with dozens of files can be
reviewed in a flash using the function keys. F1
goes tothe“Source’ listing’stop, F7 tothe bottom.
F3 moves one page up, and F'5 one page down,
Does this seem unimpressive? Remember, there
are no icons being drawn and redrawn, and 15
files instead of 8 to a page. Yes, we're talking
Speedy, “I guarantee it.” Back to the copying
function fora moment, youare copyingadisk, on
only file 4 of 37 big ones, Need to stop? Press C=,
and breathe easily.

There is also the helpful little features of the
s” or Kbytes-remaining gauge on the outside
of the windows. The inside gauge shows the

amount of files with an adjustable ga
ing your location within the directo

Finally, there isthe accessibility issue. L
that you just need to get back to the gateW:

displ

the deskop to duplicate a file (canit do that on
Dual Top). Just click on the GEOS menu and
select either option. What more can be said?
Look into your local user group for Dual Top! It
will make your GEOS experience even more
rewarding.

9)

TECH STAR COMPUTER CENTER
(206) 251-9040

We'll repair your Commodore.
Soruing the Commodore community since 1984.

Trade in

ur unwanted items,
Catalog - $2.95
Aut Maor Creoir
‘Carns Accepten,

We carry a full line of
Amiga Products.

SYSTEMS

ELTON, WA.

er Newsletter

OKI 20.........$79.00

1571.
SX64,

DPS 1101....599.00 OKI 10...

REFURBISHED SPECIALS

C64 & 1541.......8120,00
64C & 1541 Il.
C128 & 1571

MONITORS
$119.00
$119.00
$119.00
$159.00
$159.00
$159.00
CMONO...$ 29.00
MONO......$ 59.00

Pu
MISC.

21st Century.

31

Powersupplies, cables, ribbons, paper, disks, cartridges, programs
new and used, books, magazines, accessories.

COMMODORE WORLD

Carrier Detect

By Gaclyne R. Gasson

THE SEARCH IS ON: FINDING STUFF ON THE INTERNET

I've often heard the comment: “Oh sure,
everything you want to know is on the Internet,
you just have to know where to find it,” It is the
same idea when your visiting a friend or relative
and trying to make a cup of coffee, You know
everything you need is in the kitchen, but that
doesn’t mean you'll find the things you need any
faster. Learning how to find information on the
Internet is an important skill, and with a few
pointers, youcanusethe Internet moreefficiently.

Where The Goods Are Stored

Becoming familiar with the Internet's
organization is similar to opening all the
cupboards in a kitchen. One advantage to the
Internet is that even if an item is stored in one
place, it’susuallyaces
a quick list of Internet places where your search

bleby other means. Here's

can lead you,

FTP

Binary files and informational text are stored on
FTP sites, You will need to know what site carries
the information you want, and where to find the
file(s). Using FTP directly isoften the most efficient
means of locating an item.

Gopher
Many colleges and universities have Gopher sites
for informational material. The menus are easy

COMMODORE WORLD

to use and navigate, and you can bookmark a
document or menu to return to it later. On the
downside, Gopher servers can be slow and many
places have more current information on the
World Wide Web.

Usenet Newsgroups

Usenet newsgroups are divided into several
hierarchies which ¢ cover: computers, science,
humanit recreation,
miscellaneous, and talk. Using this hierarel
you can generally find something relating to your
chosen topic in one or more of the groups. By
reading previous posts, you can often glean
currentinformation without the need to post any
questions,

news,

Usenet FAQ Files

Usenet Newsgroups have FAQ(Frequently Asked
Questions) files, which are usually jam-packed
with information, In turn, they can point you to
other material on the same topic. Keep in mind
that the material is probably biased towards the
Newsgroup subject, which can be a blessing or a
curse, depending on your point of view.

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web was developed to allow
Internet users access to most utilities from one
“interface.” Although often used for

32

entertainment, al

vantag
to the Internet as a whole.

isit givesyouaccess

Finding Gold

‘The World Wide Web has sever
aid in locating material. Thr
AltaVista (http://altavista.digital.com),
WebCrawler (http://webcrawler.com/Web
Crawler/WebQuery.html), and the Lycos
Internet Directory (http://www.lycos.com/
index.html). These search engines use an
automated processtocollectand sort World Wide
Web pages daily, and then uses a database to
store the information. Deja News (tm) (hittp://
www.dejanews.com) collects articles from Usenet
newsgroups daily and allows you to search for
keywords. Deja News keeps both a current and
” searchable database.

| utilities which
such utilities are

ny are familiar with Yahoo! (http://
hoo.com), but for searching the entire
Web Internet Yahoo! falls short asiit uses its own
indexing from those who have submitted Web
sites. According to the Yahoo! F, ‘AQ (Frequently
Asked Questions) page, Yahoo! does an automatic
se “new announcements at
However, it doesn’t state where
its automatic search looks for these
announcements. A search for“C-64” with Yahoo!
yielded just 12 World Wide Web links. The same

search gave the following match results: AltaVista-

arch and looks for "

Various place

Issue 18

9,000, Webcrawler:
the Yahoo! index is
up a specific item. However, the information in
the index isn’t as current because it sometimes
takes weeks for a submitted URL to be added.

and Lycos-2,187, Since
‘ategorized, it’s easy to look

World Wide Web Search Engine
Mostofthe time, [use the AltaVista search engine
to find items by searching for a single word.
WebCrawler uses the same commands as
AltaVista, as does Lycos, but Lycos hasa couple of
different notations from the other two (see the
sidebar for the differences).

On the search form provided by the search
engine, I type in a word for the subject I'm
interested in, and then select “Submit” or
“Search.” In a short time, a WWW page is
displayed, showing a list of Web pages with the

word I want to find. Depending on the search

utility, this may include a few lines of text from
each web page to help you decide if the page has
the information you are looking for. Near the
bottom of the page, you'll find links to the next
search pages, plus links to any previous or next
pages within the current search page. I look ata
Web page in the list, and if it doesn’t meet my
liking, I can return to the search list and try
another. (It’s the shift and cursor left/right keys
to return to a previous page while using Lynx.)
After glancing at the titles of about 30 links, if
Thaven't found what Iwant, it’s time to takeanew
A new keyword, or
limit the search by using more specific choices.
After
alw:

approach. I need to choos

I, no matter what you're looking for
ys found by a process of elimination. Even
when trying to find a coffee mugin an unfamiliar
kitchen, we do so by ruling out areas such as

drawers, or lower cupboards.

Limiting The Search
Knowing the “rules” when searching for more
than one word can really speed up your search
time. The following the rules fora simplesearch.
Ifyou use capital letters, it looks for matches
to the exact word, but if you type lower case
letters, it finds any match (capitals included).
For example, if you search for “commodore”
and the search engine will find both
“commodore” and “Commodore.” A search for
“Commodore” willfind only pages with theword

“Commodore,
isting several words on the search line
will result in the engine finding documents
with as many keywords and phrases as
ible. The listis presented with documents
having the most matches first. This isn’t
always the best approach, as we will see with
other choices below,

po

WWW Search Engine Features

While search engines often share the same function, the way information is presented often differs. Here's a brief look at what AltaVista,
WebCrawler, Lycos and DejaNews™ offer users:

Searches
Text-Only Add URL Categories WWW Usenet
AltaVista We N N Ni Y
WebCrawler N Y Ni Y N
Lycros N Y v Y N
Deja News™ N N N N Y

Results Legend

= Standard Format
= Compact Format
= Detailed (Shows

(Title and

similar

AltaVista

(Title only)
links if

first few lines)

any)

Results #Matches/Page
$,C,D 10
S.C 10/25/100
S,C,D 10/20/30/40
N/A 20

Special constraints can be used in search query to match specific WWW page and Usenet attributes in searches, such asimage, anchor, link, URL,
text, and title for Web pages and newsgroup, subject, from, summary, and keywords. Usenet archives are only kept for a few weeks.

WebCrawler

Offers “WebRoulette” (random links), “Surf Backwards

on size of the World Wide Web and number of servers linked to it).

Lycos

Search options include Sites by Subject, Sounds and Pictures as well as the Web in general.

Deja News™

froma given URL (to pages that link to the URL), and WebFaets (current “guess-timate”

Offers ability to subscribe to a newsgroup to read and post articles while online just asa user would from a standard Usenet Newsreader.

Searches for keywords from its current or archive (beginning March 1995) database. Shows an “Author profile

with list of other articles

posted by the same person. Has advanced search features in an easy to use “forms” format. WWW URL's in newsgroup articles can be

selected for further Web browsing.

December 1996/January 1997

33

COMMODORE WORLD

WWW Search Engines

AltaVista
http://altavista.com

AltaVista Australian Mirror
http://www.altavista.
yellowpages.com.au

WebCrawler
http: //webcrawler.com/
WebCrawler/WebQuery .html

Lycos
http://www. lycos.com/
index.html

Lycos Note: Use a “.” after a word for
an exact (case sensitive) match.
Instead of a “*" wildcard, use a “$".

Searchable Indices

Yahoo!
http: //www.yahoo,com

CaBooM!
http://www. jbrain. com/caboom/

Usenet Search Engine

Deja News

http: //www.dejanews.com
Detailed searches of only the Usenet
Newsgroups

Tosearch fora phrase, use quotation marks. A
search for “money” (no quotes) results in two
million matching Web pages. Yet the phrase
“money is the root” (quotes included) returned
about 100 WWW pa

Using the plus and minus symbols (+ and -)
beforea word finds pages with required matches,
or causes a word or phrase to be ignored. This
eliminates bringing up associated topics youmay

elyne Moranee” will return a li
those Web pages that use my new surname,
You can use more than one plus and minus
symbol in your search, or use it with single
words and phrases. This is useful when a word
can have more than one meaning or use. For
instance, a search for baggage will result in

COMMODORE WORLD

32,000 matches that include topics like retail
sales, airline baggage, baggage carts, baggage
tags, etc. If we only want airline baggage, we
can use +airline +baggage. This resulted in
20,000 WWW pages found, but included the
pages that dealt with other issues. To rule out
all pages dealing with other airline and
baggage topics, we can try: "airline baggage”
-terrorism. This returned a manageable 139
matches of WWW pages dealing specifically
withairline baggage but keeps terrorism topics
out of the list,

Ifyou're not sure about the correct spelling of
aword, youcanusethe"*” wildcard. Thewildcard
can be used after the first three characters of a
word, Iftoo many matches are found, the word is
ignored and no matches are displayed. To find
matches for both colour and color, try searching
for “colo*r.”

Search Tools

Whenever | visit a library to find specific
information for a research project, I take along
pen and paper. This may be “old fashioned,” but
anote to remind me what I was looking for in the
first place saves metimel!'d waste otherwise. This
isalso useful when searching the Internet. [don’t
trust my memory, so | jot down file na
World Wide Web URLs.

nes or

Bookmarks

The Bookmark fileis a great tool to use so you can
quickly return toa place with information you're
interested in, In Lynx when you want to s
WWW link for future use, press the “a” key and
answer the prompts. My bookmark file used to
be a jumble of unsorted places that didn’t help
mefindanything very easily. I edited this file(you
can edit it online or offline) and put similar items
together making it easier to use. [hada very keen
interest in migrating to Australia and had
bookmarked several WWW placeswith thistopic.
When I organized my bookmark file, I put the
links for these items together in one place. Later,
when I wanted to use the information, I could
easily find the link to the Australian Embassy in
my bookmark file. If need to typeaspecific URL,
J often import the bookmark file to avoid typing
the information directly.

Make Lynx Do The Work
Whenaccessing the World Wide Webwith Lynx,
the "/” and “n" keys will help you find keywords
inaweb page. The “/" key prompts you to “Enter
y:", but what it is really asking is
“Enter word to look for.” If the word you type is
on the page, Lynx adjusts the text so the word
appears on the first line of the display

a whereis quei

34

key will take you to the next occurrence of the
word. This lets you move directly to the
information or link you want. The biggest
disadvantage to search engine pages is having
azillion links on a page. If use the “/” feature
and type the word for a link I want, it saves

time and effort. When I use a search engine
h several pages, usually it will have a link
for “next.” If I've defined the word “next”
within lynx, I can hit “n” to zoom to the link
for the next search page. This technique saves
many online minutes.

If Lynx is configured as “Numbers act as
arrows,” you can navigate a Web page using
the number 1 and 7 keys, Pressing the number:
“1" will move you to the end of a Web page,
and"7” moves you to the top. When using any
text entry form, you can jump to the start or
end of the line by using CTRL-a or CTRL-e,
respectively. Ifyou want to erase the line, press
CTRL-u.

wi

Wrap Up

I've used Web search engines for serious
rch, and they've provided me with access
to the information I needed without a lot of
wading through junk to get there, Using the
techniques outlined you can surf in the fast
search lane too,

resea

»)

AltaVista, WebCrawler, or
Lycos Search Strings

+c64 -128
Links with references to the C64
only. C128 can try: +128 -c6d

/pub/cbm*
Get a list of several WWW sites that
have links to Commodore FTP sites.

/pub/cbm* -emul*
The same list, but without links to
Commodore emulator pages.

ccnga.uwaterloo.ca/pub/cbm*
Links of Commodore related
ccnga.uwaterloo.ca links.

newsgroup: comp.sys.cbm +faq

A list comp.sys.cbm newsgroup
articles that include the word “faq.”

Issue 18

( GEOCABLE Il
Parallel Print Cable

E X P A N D
YOUR SYSTEM

3 SLOT CARTRIDGE PORT EXPANDERS

The EX2+1 and EX3 Cartridge Port Expanders bring new
expandability to you Commodore 64 or 128. Combine the
use of compatible cartridges. Disable cartridges notin use.
Change the address your computer finds a cartridge at.
Avoid the constant changing of cartridges that puts extra
wear on your cartridge port. The EX3 offers 3 vertical
expansion slots, while the EX2+1 provides 2 vertical slots
and 1 horizontal slot. Both units offer 7 switchable signals
per slot, address mapping on slot 2, and a reset button.

The Most Advanced Parallel Print Cable Ever!

*Uses Standard Cable + Faster CALL 1-300-638-3263
Equipped with a female DB-25 Parallel printing offers up to a
cable connector to allow use of 40% increase in output s|
standard 'PC' printer cables, * GEOS Drivers Included

* Switchable Pass-thru Includes GEOS drivers plus:

Allows connection of printerand useful GEOS utilities like
other user port peripherals such MacAttack Il, WronglsWrite, and
as modems without conflicts. GEOS CONVERT.
GEOCABLE-II (6 ft.) | ONLY $29.00 GeoCabile I!is compatible with GEOS, Perfect
GEOCABLE-II (15 ft.) ONLY $34.00 Print LO, Action-Roplay MK Vi. Superbase,

Shipping: US $5,00, $7.00, Suporecript, Papercli I), and all software that
‘supports. sor port paralle! printing,

Creative Micro Designs, Inc.
PO, Box 646 (Orders: 800-638-3263
East Longmeadow, MA 01028 Info: 413-525-0023

Used & Refurbished |

PRINTERS - MONITORS - DISK DRIVES

CALL 1-800-638-3263

Creative Micro Designs presently has a huge overstock of used and refurbished printers
available at prices from $30 to $100. Other items, such as blemished monitors and third-party |
disk drives are also available at reduced prices. These super deals won’t last long, so be sure to |
contact CMD right away about your printer needs!

PRINTERS

Commodore 1525 * Commodore 1526 +» Commodore MPS 801
Commodore MPS 803 * Protecto Big Blue - Seikosha SP1200VC
Star NX-1000 - Star NX-1000C - Panasonic KX-P1080i » Okimate 20
MONITORS
Commodore 1802 + Sanyo 40 Column Color * Magnavox CM8502
DISK DRIVES
Amtech RF512 C > Enhancer 2000 * Excellerator Plus - Blue Chip
MISCELLANEOUS
Commodore C-16 * Epxy Fastload - eee Graphix Jr

December 1996/January 1997 35 COMMODORE WORLD

PROGRAMMING PITFALLS

FPROGRAMMIST

By Maurice Randall

Have you ever written a program that trashes disks? I have, but not

intentionally. Fortunately, I've been lucky enough to catch the problems

before releasing the programs. Let's see if | can show you how to avoid a
very bad situation,

The Current Drive

With the exception of GEOS, it is easy to find out which drive i
by checking the location at 186 (hex Sba). More programmers should
adopt this practice because the days of having a single 1541 at device
8 are over. Users like to make use of all the devices they have.

With GEOS, however, it’s a little different. You should make sure
you make use of any device that is online or your program will get little
use. Don’t limit yourself to drive A and B either, as the original
Desktop does. The person using your program might be using A, B, C,
and even, D—making it necessary to accomodate the extra dri

How do we know which device is active? We don’t always need to
know, but you don't do it by checking location $ba, which in GEOS is
known as curDevice. s method gives only the current serial bus
device as far as the normal CBM kernal routines are concerned. GEOS
knows which drive is current through the variable known as curDrive.

his is the location you should be concerned with. Remember that
GEOS does not use the Commodore serial bus routines for accessing
the drives, especially when a RAMDisk is being accessed. The only
time the Commodore routines are used is when sending the turbo code
residing within the drive to the drive. The custom turbo routines can’t
berun until that code isin the drive. The Commodore routines are also
used when accessing a printer on the serial bus. (Note to user:
a good reason to have JiffyDos even if you only use GEOS. The turbo
code is transferred faster. This takes place many times while GEOS is
running, not just during the bootup period.)

Outside of GEOS, if you use the Listen routine to access a drive, the
kernal will set up curDevice for you. In GEOS, you would only use
Listen if you need to do something out of the ordinary with one of the
drives. For most applications, it is not necessary to access the internal
workings ofa drive. Thats left up to the disk drivers themselves as well
as applications such as Configure and the Desktop. Prior to using
Listen, you may or may not have to remove the turbo code from the
drive. It all depends on what you intend to do. In either case, you need
to turn the code off before any of the Commodore kernal routines such
as Listen can access the drive.

active

COMMODORE WORLD

36

Exit Or Purge?

If your drive access is going to affect the RAM inside the drive where the
turbo code resides, you will need to purge the code from the drive first
by using the routine PurgeTurbo. Just call the routine and then youare
ready to doa direct access of the drive. Ifyou are only going to perform
sk such as reading the drive's error channel, then you only need to
call ExitTurbo. The code will still be in the drive, but will be turned off.
EnterTurbo will turn the code back on. EnterTurbo also serves the
purpose of reloading the code into the drive if you had called
PurgeTurbo. Reading the drive's error channel or sending certain
commands to the drive's command channel do not affect any code that
isin the drive's RAM, unless the command actually writes to the RAM,
as with a memory write command. It is very unlikely that you will ever
need todo any direct access of the drive such as this—GEOS is designed
to do this dirty work for you. GEOS has some better routines for your
application to use. After all, what's the point in rewriting something
that already works fine.

The SetDevice Dilemma

Are you ready to get into trouble? A quick way to find yourself knee deep is
tostore a value to curDrive, Let's say your application is currently running
with drive A as the active drive. A quick check of curDrive would show a
value of 8 there. You would think that you could store a 9 there and then
access drive B—not so. There are other things that need to be done in order
to make this work. Let GEOS do this for you with the routine SetDevice.
SetDevice performsseveral tasks, with theend result being thattheintended
drive will be ready to be used by your application. You will then be able to
load or save data to the drive. SetDevice will turn off the turbo code in the
current drive and then perform the necessary task of bringing the correct
disk driver from the REU into memory. It does not, however, turn on the
turbo code in the new drive. We will get to that later. You would think that
SetDevice would report an error should anything go wrong, right? Wrong.
Itwas meant to, but the original designers of GEOS goofed. You're on your
own in detecting errors. Using SetDevice is simple:

lda #9

jsr SetDevice

This will prepare drive B for you. According to the GEOS Programmer's
Reference Guide, the x register will indicate any disk error that may have

Issue 18

occurred. The problem is x will always return holding a zero value which
would indicate no errors.(Note: In GEOS 3.0, SetDevice has been rewritten
to return an error in x if the desired drive is not available.) What if drive B
does not exist? Seems to melike the above routine showing no errors would
indicate that drive b indeed is online and can be accessed. After all, we
called SetDevice to prepare that drive for acce:

So how do we know that drive B really does exist? First let's look at what
might happen if it’s not there. For a simple scenario, let's say that your
application merely copies the boot block from one disk to another, but prior
to saving the block to the second drive, you might change something. This is
avery logical and useful idea. The following code might accomplish this task:

lda #8

jsr SetDevice
LoadW r4, #diskBlkBuf
LoadB r1L,#1
LoadB r1H, #0
jsr GetBlock
make changes within diskBIkBuf here...

lda #9
jsr SetDevice
jsr PutBloc

That seems pretty straightforward. We loaded track 1, sector 0 from
drive A into memory at diskBIkBuf, We made whatever changes we wanted
and then opened up drive B and wrote the block to the drive at the same
location. Since rl and r4 are not altered by GetBlock or SetDevice, those
values remained the same and did not need to be set up again. If we were
going to save the block of data toa different sector, then r1Landr1H would
have needed to be altered prior to the call to PutBlock.

The code above would have failed if drive B did not exist. The call to
PutBlock would actually rewrite the block back to drive 8. It would do no
good to check for any errors because there would be none. Everything
would appear to work correctly to the application . The only problemis that
we just altered a sector that we did not want to alter. Imagine what would
happen ifwe were changing the directory blocks or some other vital portion
of the disk, That could prove to be a very bad situation,

The Cure For SetDevice

You still need to use SetDevice, but it’s just too bad it doesn’t check for
errors like it was supposed to do. Instead, you are going to have to actually
check some variables in the GEOS kernal yourself to see if a drive exists
before attempting to access it. These variables are stored in four locations
at driveType. There are 4 bytes here, one for each drive. The following code
will determine if there really is a drive B online.

ldy #9
lda drivetype-8,y

With that little bit of code, you can do a branch on equal (beq) for non-
existant drive, ora branch not equal (bne)ifadrivee
isatthe location you are checking, then there is no drive. Any non-zero will
indicate a drive does indeed exist and you can also identify the type of drive
there. On the same token, the variable cur Type always indicates the type of
drive that is currently active according to curDrive. SetDevice copiesa byte
from one of the driveType locations to curType for you.

December 1996/January 1997

37

Is The Turbo Code Running?

Now that you know how to get access to a drive, how do you know if the
turbo codeneedstobeturned on orsent tothe drive. The good thingis that
we don't really need to know. Routines such as PutBlock or GetBlock will
perform the task if needed. You can do it if you'd like, but it’s not
necessary. A call to EnterTurbo will do the job, All the higher level routines
call this function for you, but the lower level routines do not. The lower
level routines expect that it has already been called and will fail ifit hasn't,
If you use SetDevice to switch drives and then do a low level disk access,
your program will crash. Let's say you are accessing drive A and then
switch to B asin the following code:

lda #9
lda

LoadB riL, #1
LoadB r1H, #0

DoneWithIo

This code did not turn on the turbo code, or install it in the drive if
itwas not already there. After the call to SetDevice, you should doaJSR
to EnterTurbo. This example turns out to be really meaningless because
we could have used GetBlock instead and avoided calling InitForlO
and DoneWithIO. We only read one block with above code, and
GetBlock does all that and reads one block, It also calls EnterTurbo. So
why would we want to use ReadBlock when it requires more code to
use? If we were going to read a number of blocks at one time, then
repeated calls to just ReadBlock within that above routine would be
faster than repeated calls to GetBlock. We would only be calling
InitForlO and DoneWithI0 one time instead of GetBlock calling them
each time a block is read.

One More Time

SetDevice has one more important use. Printer drivers call it to set up the
serial bus for printer access. The geoCable drivers also call it even though
they do not access the serial bus. This allows GEOS to do any needed
housekeeping prior to the printer access. The variable curDevice will also
be set to device 4 but curDrive will remain at whatever drive is currently
active. For this reason, after your application calls any printer driver
routine for printer access, it should call SetDevice before doing any disk

‘This will insure that everything is back in place for you. As long as you
load the accumulator with the value from curDrive, you can be pretty much
assured that the drive is there or curDrive never would have been given that
value in the first place. If curDrive contained a zero, you might get into
trouble, but about the only time that curDrive is set to zero is during a drive
swap which usually only occurs from the Desktop.

Please make use of the four drive capability that the user wants you todo,
but just remember to only try accessing the drives that are actually online.
People tend to shy away from using your program is if it has a tendency to
trash disks.

4)

COMMODORE WORLD

ASSEMBLY

LING

By Jim Butterfield

Many programmers get a little nervous when it comes time to deal with
numbers, Numbers are not all that difficult, and they are useful...how else
can you put high scores on your games?

ASCII Numbers

The numbers we read and write are ASCII text. Press the “6” key, and
the computer will receive a value of 54, which is the ASCII character for
6. Subtract 48, and you'll get the binary value 6. Input a number such
789, and the computer gets three ASCII characters, one for each
digit.

ASCII text is ne y for input from the keyboard and from files,
where numbers are often held as text. They are also needed for output
to printer or screen, so it would be true to say that numbers always
start and end in their ASCII form. Some numbers stay in ASCII form,
never changing to anything else. You won't need to do arithmetic on
such numeric strings as telephone numbers or zip codes. Keep these
numbers in ASCII.

Binary Numbers

‘The most compact way to storenumbersisin binary form. A single byte can
hold values from 0 to 255; compare this to the ASCII range of a single
character byte, which goes from 0 to 9. Binary numbers are great for
arithmetic. The “add and subtract instructions” are ready to go (ADC and
SBC), and it’s not hard to work through multiplication and division
subroutines if needed, The challenge is that you can’t input or output
binary numbers; you have to convert from or to ASCH. This is not really a
problem—we'll get to that code fairly soon,

Compromise: BCD Numbers

Halfway between ASCII and binary numbers, there's a compromise called
BCD, which stands for Binary Coded Decimal. Each byte will contain two
decimal digits from 0 to 9: onein the high four bits (the “high nybble”), and
the other in the low four. A BCD byte can hold a value from 00 to 99, which
isa heck ofalotbetter than the 0to9 range that ASCII gives you, but it's not
as good as the 0 to 255 of binary.

BCD numbers are fairly easy to convert to ASCII for output: just grab the
four-bitvalue representinga digit, trim itup to the ASCII numeric character
range (for example, by adding 48), and out it goes. Input is just as easy.

BCD numbers are also pretty good for addition and subtractio
6502 processor has a “decimal mode” making it a snap. Multiplication
and division and other advanced math isn't as easy, binary numbers
do a better job,

Comparison and the C Flag
We talked about flags the last time around. It was mentioned that if
you wanted to compare the size of two numbers, the C flag is the one

COMMODORE WORLD

38

NUMBERS AND ARITHMETIC

to check. After a comparison (with CMP, CPX, or CPY), the C flag will
bes the register value is greater than or equal to whatever you're
comparing to. Conversely, the C flag will be CLEAR if the register
contains a lower value than that of the operand, Beginners often think
that the BPL (Branch Plus) and BMI (Branch Minus) commands will
ay with the Cflaganditstests,

ignal greater than or less than. Not so...
BCS and BCC.

How do we test an incoming ASCH character to confirm tha valid
numeric character? Here's the code, assuming that the character isin the A
register:

"gn

CMP #

than

Ifthe program doesn’t take either branch above, the A register contains a
valid numeric digit. It could now be reduced to binary with a command
such as AND #$0F. You would use the same kind of coding to identify an
alphabetic chara

Program Preview

The program given here is something of a change of pace. Instead of being
plain vanilla coding, it uses a number of tricks. Try to figure them out, it’s
good exercise.

Here's what the program does: it allows
or two digits, then press the “+” ke econd number, and finally the
“=” key. It will d print it. Thus, ifyou typed: “45+36="
the computer would complete the line by adding "81".

Note that only the keys named can be used, RETURN will be useless: all
you can press is the numeric keys, the “+” key, and the "=" key. A good
revision to the program would be to allow the STOP key to be recognized
(use JSR SFFE1 to test thestop ke} d, BEQuill branch youto the
exit code of your choice). In the interest of keeping things brief, the code
given here doesn’t even check STOP,

This program will run on almost any Commodore machine ever built. If
your tiny VIC-20 doesn’t have memory at address 8192 (hex 2000), you
may have to adjust things slightly.

you to type in a number of one

culate a total a

Gimmicks and Gadgets

The code in this program isa little off the beaten path. | will note some of
the key points of interest as I move through the code. The first part (hex
2000 to 2009) clears the input area, which ranges from $2100 to $2106:

Issue 18

CLRLOOP $2100,x

DE}
BPL CLRLOOP

At$200A, we get a character from the keyboard. We always loop back here
to get another character.

GETCHR

JSR $

Trick number one: we are counting the characters received in address
$2100. If we have received exactly two characters, we will skip ahead
to look for the “+”; ifwe have received exactly five, look for the “=" key.

BEQ
c

>KPLS vi
#505
BEQ CKEQU

sif five,

ch

Now we check to see if our received character is a valid ASCII numeric, as
demonstrated this method earlier.

save it
ry with

a valid numeric character. We
nd convert the value to bin

At this point, we know we h
for the moment in the Y register,

CW & RUN BACK ISSUES

For years, RUN Magazine provided Commodore Users with a great source
ofinformation, and now CMD has given you Commodore World. Don'tlet this
valuable information slip away—fill in the voids in your library now!

RUN Magazine Back Issues
Any 3 issues for $12.00, any 6 for $18.00,
or any 12 for only $24.00

RMJAN89 January 1989 RMJUN90 June/July 1990
RMFEB89 February 1989 RMDEC90 December 1990
RMMAY89 May 1989 RMJANS1 Jan/Feb 1991
RMJUN89 June 1989 RMJUN91 JuneJuly 1991
RMJUL89 July 1989 RMJAN92 Jan/Feb 1992
RMAUG89 August 1989 RMMAR92 March/April 1992
RMSEP89 September 1989 RMMAY92 May/June 1992
RMOCT89 October 1989 RMJUL92 July/August 1992
RMSP89 Special Issue 1989 RMSEP92 —Sep/October 1992
RMJANSO January 1990 RMNOV92 Nov/December 1992
RMMAYS0 May 1990

‘Shipping: 3-6 issues - U.S. $9.00, Canada $5.00, Foreign $15.00,
12 Issues U.S, $5.00; Canada $7.00; Foreign $20.00.

Commodore World Back Issues
$4.95 each, or any 3 for only $12.00

cw Commodore World Issue 1 CW10 — “Commodore World Issue 10
cw2 Commodore World Issue 2 CW11 Commodore World Issue 11
cw3 Commodore World Issue 3 CW12 — Commodore World Issue 12
cw4a Commodore World Issue 4 CW13 — Commodore World Issue 13
cws Commodore World Issue 5 CW14 — Commodore World Issue 14
cwe Commodore World Issue 6 ~CW15 — Commodore World Issue 15
cw7 Commodore World Issue 7 CW16 — Commodore World Issue 16
cws *Commodore World Issue 8 CW17 — Commodore World Issue 17
cws Commodore World Issue9 CW18 — Commodore World Issue 18

Shipping: U.S. and Canada $2.00 for first issue. plus $1.00 per additional issues.
Foreign $5.00 per issue. "Indicates Issues out of print-Xerox copy supplied.

TO ORDER CALL 1-800-638-3263

December 1996/January 1997

39

the instruction. The binary value is stored in the area at 2101 and
above. Don't forget that X still contains the number of characters
received, so this value controls the exact location where the binary

value is stored.

Address 2027, SHOWCH, prints the character to the screen so that the user
can see what was typed. We add one to the characters-received counter in
X and store the value in memory. Then we read the keyboard again,

sprint

character in A register

CHR, 200A!

Ifthe input key is too small to bea numeric, it might be a “+” character, but
we'll only accept that if one or two characters have been received so far.
Here's the check for “one character”:

;if not “one, back we go

Se,

Specializing in NEW and USED Commodore Hardware,
Software and Accessories at excellent prices.

Send $1.00 for a HUGE list of products, Office Hours:
11:30 - 6:30 MST. Visa, MC, Discover and American Express accepted.

3366 South 2300 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84109

Phoenix 64

A MAGAZINE FOR USERS OF THE C64/128

‘The Commodore appears poised to rise from the ashes like the Phoenix of
old. With the SuperCPU and CMD's venture toward a new computer, a
magazine is needed to give Commodore owners an expert source that is up
close and personal.

Phoenix 64 is designed for the beginning user who wants to advance, for
the advanced user who wants to be on the cutting edge, and for the
Commodore observer who wants to witness it all. Order now for the
premier issue of Phoenix 64. (No subscriptions.)

Make checks payable to:
Roger Lawhorn USA: $3.00/issue
P. O. Box 8053 CANADA and MEXICO: $4.50

FOREIGN: $5.50

New Albany, IN 47151

COMMODORE WORLD

Then, if one character has already been received, we will drop
through to the following code. If two characters have already been
received, we will leap to this point from an earlier point in the
program. In either case, the task at hand is to check for a “+”
character, hexadecimal 2B.

CKPLS CMP

BNE GI

4923
it

HR if not "+", forget
Ifwe have received two numeric characters so far, we can printthe plus sign

and keep going.

If we got only one numerical character, we have to move it from the
“tens” digit position to the “ones” digit position, placing a zero value
in the tens position, We add one to the character countin X to allow for
the ghost zero in the tens position. After that, we can print the plus and
continue,

INK

LDY $2101
$2102
#500

sTY
LDY

brar

‘The coding to check for the “=
for “+”. The main differences are that we're looking for this to follow 4 or 5
input characters; and, after we do find that equals character, we finish the
program by doing the arithmetic.

TOOBIG CPX
BNE

4804
TCHR

mot 4 characters, forget it!

After five input characters, we leap directly to the following code:

QU CMP #930

GETCHR

BNE pnot an '=', go back

We have the equals sign. Print it.

JSR $FFD2 yprint character in A

y one digit was received for the second value, we must reorganize the
and “ones” values, as before.

} if the whole five, skip ahead

sTY $2104

The following arithmetic is done as BCD, but the stored values have
only one digit to a byte, instead of two! This would normally give

COMMODORE WORLD

ter is very similar to the above stuff

40

problems with the Carry operation as we go from one digit to the next.
Ifthe most we can add is 9 plus 9, we'll never go over 99 and trigger the
Carry flag for the next column. This problem is resolved in the code
below, but I'll leave it as a puzzle for you to look at, How do I make the
carry flag do its work, and how do I handle the possible 3-digit total,
such as we would get with 99+995...?

SED set BCD mode!

to add!

repare

adjust carry flag

;no more addition
#$10 ie

TWODIG

1dy flag

carry

TWODIG

#930

yand again

#S0D

JSR $FFD2 pprint
RTS #all done,

Listing: poeta POKE

732 2
110 DATA

46,201,48,144, 16,168, 41,15
120 DATA 157,1,33,152,32,210,255, 232,142
1218, 224, 1,208,214
201,4 208,210,224,
133i, Het 33,160,0
140,1,33,240,221,224, 4,208,188,
201, 61,208,184, 32,210,255
150 DATA 224,5,240,12,232,172,4,33,140,5
,33,160,0,140,4, 33,248, 24
160 DATA 173,2,33,109,5,33,168,201,16,1
,109,4,33,170,21
1 44,5,169, 210,255
240,5,9,48, 32,210,255
180 DATA 152,9,48,3 255,169,13,32,2
255,96
200 FOR J=8192 TO 8340
210 READ X x
220

POKE J,X
230 <
0
300

PRINT
310 PRINT
R 2 DIGITS, '
400 SYS 8192

TS, +", LO

Issue 18

CHECKSUM

Commodore World’s Program Entry Checking Program
and Tips on Entering Programs from this Magazine

CHECKSUMisa program that proofreads your typing when youenteralistingfrom
the magazine. It assignsa numerical value to each character that you type, adds up
thevalues ofthe line you typed and displays the sum. (Checksum, therefore, means
that it checks your typing by summing the characters.) It also verifies that you have
typed the characters in the proper order. (Checksum won't tell you ifyou missa line
of code entirely, so verify that yourself.) Checksum runs “in the background” when
you type in lines of program code, Whenever you type a line and press RETURN,
Checksum will display a value. Compare that value to the value published next to
the line of code in the magazine. If the numbers match, you've typed the
imple.

ine

Typing in CHECKSUM

First, type in Checksum carefully from the listing on this page. Be sure to press
RETURN after every line toenteritinto memory. Once youhave typed the program,
save it, In fact, save it a few times while you're typing, just to be safe. (This is good
advice whenever you type in a program. I usually change the name each time I save;
forexample, Checksuml, Checksum2, and soon.) Double-check your work,
sure that you've typedin every line and that you've pressed RETURN after e
you've typed, Ifyou make errors when typing in Checksum, a test run of Checksum
will tell you which lineis incorrect, (This: feature works only in the Checksum.
program itself, and does not apply toany otherlistingsin the magazine.) Whenever
you find a typing error (in any program listing), fix it, press RETURN to enter the
change, save the program again and try another run. Repeat this processas often as
necessary. Important tip: Don’t get discouraged if the program won't run. Be
patient. Be thorough. It will work eventually. You'll know your Checksum is ready
when you see the line:

TO TOGGLE ON OR OFF, S

Entering Programs Using CHECKSUM

When you're ready to type in your first listing from the magazine, load and run
Checksum. Makea note ofthe number thatis displayed on the screen (49152 forthe
28 for the C-128). To activate and dea ‘Checksum, type SYS followed
by that number, then press RETURN. You need to have Checksum active whenever
you're typing in a listing. Checksum must be deactivated, however, when you run
the new program. The next step is typing in a new program listing a
the magazine.

As you begin, you'll notice that to the left of the start of each line is a number.
Don't type this number in: It’s simply the Checksum value. Stop typing at the end
of the program line and press RETURN, If you've typed the line correctly, the
number displayed on the screen will match the Checksum value. Ifthe numbers
don't match, you've made a mistake. Check the line carefully, make your changes
and press RETURN. The computer won't know you've made a change unless you
press RETURN on the changed line to enter it. A few type-in hints: The Checksum
does not verify blank spaces in the program lines unless they are within quotation
marks, because adding or omitting such spaces will not affect the operation of the
program. The exception to thisis hexadecimal Data statements. These are the Data
statements, such as this one, that don’t have commas:

it appears in

4567890123

100 DATA 12345678901234567890*12
67890*123456789012345 90*

Instatements such as these, you must have one space between the word DATA and
the numbers that follow. Checksum will not catch that error.

December 1996/January 1997

a

Special Key Combinations

Asyoutype, you may be confused the first time you see curly braces (). These braces
mean “perform the function explained within.” For example, (22 SPACES} means
that you need to press the space bar 22 times. Don't type the braces (you can't, of
course, because there are no curly bracesin the Commodore character set). Here are
some other common examples:

{CLEAR/HOME) hold down the SHIFT key and press the CLR-HOME key.
{2 CRSR DN} tap the cursor down key twice.
{CTRLi} hold the CONTOL key and press the I key.

{CMDR t) hold down the COMMODO!

and press the T key

Continue typing in your prog often and checking each checksum value
with the one in the magazine, until you've finished the listing, Phew! Sonow you're
econd, deactivate
Checksum by typing SYS followed by 49152,orthe C-64 or 3328 forthe C-128, Now
youcanrun. Don'thediscouragedifyoustill getan error. Ithappens. Use Checksum
faithfully. Be patient. Be thorough. It will work eventually,

»)

CHECKSUM

COMMODORE WORLD

PGR Gree

Visi

By Jin Butterfield

1. During INPUT, pressing RETURN tells the
computer to look at the screen for its data, not at
the keyboard, Of course what's on the screen will
usually have been delivered from the keyboard,
but not always.

2. Pressing SHIFT-RETURN tells the computer
nothing; it just gets you off the current screen
and out of programmed-cursor mode (that
annoying “reverse-character” thing). This is very
handy if you've messed up your input.

e

Typing CHRS(14) puts the screen into text
mode; typing CHR$(142) puts the screen into
graphics mode. This works with all Commodore
8-bit computers, except the very earliest models
of the PET.

4, On Commodore computers since the VIC-20,
pressing SHIFT-COMMODORE toggles the
screen between textand graphics mode. Youknew
at, didn't you?

5. On the VIC-20 and Commodore 64, you can
disable that screen/text toggle by printing
CHRS(8). Restore it by printing CHRS(9). On the
128 (and the Plus-4/C16), use CHRS(11) and
CHRS(12),

6, Because of the different characters used to
disable the above toggle on various machines,
many programmers prefer to pass on this
character, and instead print CHRS(14) or
CHR§(142), If the user plays with the SHIFT-
COMMODORE keys, the above will put things
back the way the programmer wants them.

7. 1n terms of keyboard mechanics, it’s possible
(in principle) to detect any two keys pressed at
the same time. But as a general rule, there's no
way to detect all possible 3-key combinations.

8. Commodore 8-bit keyboards are set up as an
y of “rows” and “columns”. When a key is

COMMODORE WORLD

pressed, it makesa connection between a specific
rowand column. See Figure 1 for thelayout ofthe
VIC-20 and Commodore 64 keyboard.

9. When testing the keyboard, the computer puts
a voltage down each row in turn, and watches to
see which columns passthe voltage back. Youcan
write the code to do this yourself, but it’s a little
complex, and the interrupt routine usually does
the job for you nicely.

10. Two keys are no problem-as each row is
selected, signals may come back on two columns
simultaneously, or may came back as different
rows are selected. The computer can sort out
which two keys are involved either way.

11. Three keys are not always resolvable. Refer
to Figure 1, and look at what happens if the
user presses keys “E”,"Z” and “U" at the same
time. When the row marked R2 is tested,
response will come back on columns B6 and
B4, which is correct (detecting “E” and “Z”).
When a voltage is put onto row R4, it will run
up column B6 and from there (through the “E”

connection) along row 2 as well; then the
voltage will make its way to B4, so that the “B”
key will appear to be pressed. This effect is
called a “ghost” key.

12. Practical result: the interrupt services of the
computer expect only two keys to be pressec
time. Iftwoare pressed, one will usually bea shift-
type key.

13. Note that the left and right shift keys are
separateswitch pointson the keyboard, but you'd
have to write your own coding to detect the
difference between left-shift and right-shift.

14. The “bottom row” of keys (R8 in Figure 1) is
especially easy to check, since a copy of the
“columns” it triggers is kept in memory. On the

42

KEYBOARD TIPPING

VIC-20 and Commodore 64, and Commodore
. this data is kept at address 145. On many
pre-Vic-20 machinesit’sat 155. Thekeysmapped
into this row may not be the same between
different machines.

15. Values shown at the “keyswitch” address
above tend to be inverted. In other words, when
the line is energized, the corresponding bit i:
turned OFF. With no keys pressed, you'll see a
value of 255 here.

gure 1 shows that the keys logged into the
itch” address for the Commodore 64 and
similar machines, are (high end to low): Stop,
“Q", Commodore, Space, “2”, Ctrl, back-arrow,
up-arrow, Basicwould havea tough timedetecting
the Stop key with such a PEEK, of course, since
Basic would stop before it could do the test.

17. A Basic program could, however, ask the user
to press a key combination such as Ctrl, Space,
and back-arrow. When address 145 showsa value
of 233, the computer will know that this
combination has been pressed. (We start with
255, no key, and subtract 16 for Space, 4 for Ctrl,
and 2 for back-arrow, giving usa result of 233). A
handy way to set up an emergency program exit
or “backdoor” code.

18. 1t doesn't matter if you tap a key or hold it
down, the interrupt routines that check the
keyboard won't register a key as being hit
twice just because it has detected “key down”
several times in a row. Of course, some
computers have a “key repeat” feature, but
that’s different.

19. To help with this “debouncing” action, every
computer hasa location where it ki
keyboard looked like last time I checked”. The
value is kept at address 203 on the VIC-20 and
Commodore 64, at 151 on many pre-VIC-20

Issue 18

ines, andat 212and213ontheCommodore
128. The value is an internal code; it’s not in
ASCII/PETSCH.

The location just named is a good way to tell
yis being helddown. Games, especially, can
benefit from repeating or sustaining an action as
Jongas the key is held, Be aware that the “no key”
value to be found in this location varies from
machine to machine-possibly 64, 88, or 255. You
should be able to research which value fits your
computer,

21. Because the keyboard is read by interrupt
routines, the values can change while your
program is reading them. You need to be careful
in choosing your sequence of tests.

22. The recommended way to have Basic check if
a key is being held down is read the “key code”
and store it, For example, ona Commodore 64 or
20 you might code KC=PEEK(203). Now try
to read the keyboard with GET KS. Ifyou get a
real key, not a null string, use it and ignore the
peek value. So: IF KS<>"" GOTO 740, When you
get a null string, check the results of that earlier
sn’t theno-key value, the last-read key
must still be pressed. Thus: IF KC<64 GOTO ..
(where you'll repeat the previous key action).

23. Weall know that you can “type ahead” into
the keyboard buffer. Keyboard buffers
typically hold 9 characters; sometimes they
can be adjusted to be larger, but that’s rarely
important.

24, Some programs want to be sure that the
keyboard buffer is empty before starting a user
dialogue. Although POKEcommandsare popular
for this, the neatest way to empty it out is with
command: GET X$,X$,X$,X$,X$,X$,X$,X$,X$
«and you won't need to worry about whatever
value ends up in XS.

25. Theinterrupt (IRQ) program kicksin 60times
persecond, and checks the keyboard, puttingany
keys it finds into the keyboard buffer. Lots of
machine language programmers like to “ :
the interrupt when it starts and add their own.
code, Be warned that this won't help you meddle
with keyboard routines, since the keyboard will
be checked AFTER the custom code, and the
charactermight well be picked upandused before
the next interrupt strikes.

26. If a programmer finds the need to dig in
and modify keyboard action at the interrupt
level, the job takes a somewhat more subtle

December 1996/January 1997

approach called a “post-interrupt”. | won't
go into detail, but it involves catching the
interrupt when it starts, and building a
“fake” interrupt return. When the main
interrupt code is finished, it “returns” the
system to your post-code, which does its
meddling and then REALLY returns to the
interruptend point, requiring careful
coding.

27. Alternatively, an ambitious programmer
could write a complete set of interrupt code to
replace those in ROM. This is not as easy as it
mightsound, especially on the Commodore 128,
which has a large set of interrupt activities

program accept the characters as delivered to
you by the keyboard routines, and modify them

at time, You can usually get away with this
and save a lot of tricky coding.

Since keyboard input comes from the
keyboard buffer, you can fake input by stufling
the buffer. (The computer is “typing on its own
keyboard”).

30, Since the main input stream comes from the
screen,and youhavelimitedspacein the keyboard
buffer, you can fake input by putting it on the
screen and just putting RETURN characters into
thekeyboard buffer. Besure to position the cursor
accurately,

31, Why would a computer want to type its
own input? Well, there are a few commands
that behave differently, depending on whether
they are given within a program or typed on
the keyboard. An example would be the LOAD
command,

32. A program can stop itself (with the screen set
upand the keyboard buffer stuffed), changealine
of its code, and then restart itself? Amaze your
friends, but use this kind of thing sparingly

33. Yes, you can disassemble and clean your
Commodore keyboard. Some use alcohol
applied with QTips. Some use detergent and
water, followed by a cleansing rinse. Reports
vary on the success of various methods. Be
very careful with small springs (usually found
under keycaps), they are difficult to pick out
of a shag carpet!

3)

CRSR-U/D

STOP!Q

Figure 1: Layout of the C-64 keyboard. Each Key is a switch that
connects a row to a bit position column. The computer places a signal
on each row (Rito R8) and looks at what comes back in the bit positions.

CRSR-R/L

CTRL

43

COMMODORE WORLD

BASIC

PROGRAMMING PEARLS

INSTINCTS

By David Pankbucrsd

This month’s title is taken from the book of the same name by Jon
Bentley. Bentley, a researcher at AT&T labs, wrote the book in the mid
1980's as a compilation of some of the columns he did on computer
programming, This book is of interest to Commodore programmers
as well as others because it deals with thinking about programming,
rather than programming itself. In each essay, problems are spelled
out, and various solutions are tried. Going through the book is an
to “wrap your mind” around a problem, enabling you to
ach it from all sides.

Besides various practical examples, he discusses the task of programming,
encouraging good habits and techniques. Among them, he emphasizes the
need to search outa good algorithm, rather than the first one that comes to
mind; to analyze rather than trus d_requirements (which can
sometimes be wrong); and to do back of the envelope calculations to get a
feel for a practical solution. Along the way, he repeats the need to balance
the frequently opposing forces: computer time, memory, and your time—
all required to produce a program.

Find The Right Problem to Solve.

As an example of the book's content, the first chapter opens with a
conversation between the author and a fellow programmer who needs to
do a disk sort. After listing several options which don't seem to fit the
requirements, he asks a few questions, digging deeper. The result was that
the other programmer didn’t need a disk sort per se, but felt he needed
it to sort a large file that couldn't fit in memory (sound familiar?).
Eventually, the problem was broken down into the need to sort at most
27,000 integers, ranging from 1-27,000, with each number appearing no
more than once, Although that problem consisted of sorting electoral
trict numbers, a similar problem could occur with phone numbers, or
social security numbers.

The programmer obviously felt sorting the file and printing the sorted
list would do the trick. Benteley asks “is there a better way?”, breaks it
down further, and then solves it without the disk sort. Before | explain, try
to solve it yourself.

di

The Easy Way
The key to simplifying the problem is to note that either a number is
in the list, oritisn’t (there's guaranteed to be only one ofeach number).

COMMODORE WORLD

44

Sounds like a binary decision, and so it is. The next point is that the
range is from 0-27,000. If we use one memory byte per number to
represent presence or non-presence, ¥ n comfortably fit 27,000
one-byte flags in the C64’s memory. Describing the problem, we would
do the following:

1) set aside an area of memory that can store the 27,000 bytes

2) set them all to zero (indicating a number doesn't exist yet)

3)read in the list: for each number X, set the Xth byte in the array to one,
indicating it’s accounted for

4) after all are read in, go through the list in memory; for each position
X in the array, print the number Xonly if it is turned on (indicating,
the number was read in)

The result isa sorted list without the sorting
and energy.

For simplicity, we use one byte to represent one number. With a little
extra coding, however, we can use most of the 62K RAM available, and one
bit per number, rather than one byte. This would let us sort up to half
million numbers (62K x 8 bits = 507,904 bits), Phone numbers? There are
at most ten million phone numbers in any area code, Sorting phone
numbers (none of them duplicates) would take just over a meg of RAM,
such as found in a RAM expander,

It’s this kind of non-linear thinking that fills the book—look for a
solution by defining exactly what the problem is.

vinga great deal oftime

Build Safety Factors In

Few of us have heard of John Roebling, but many of us have heard of
the Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster. In the 1940's, a suspension
bridge was caught up in a windstorm and was completely destroyed.
Other suspension bridges of that era met a similar fate, but not the
most famous, the Brooklyn Bridge. The reason? It's designer, Mr
Roebling, created the bridge similar to the way the others had been
built, accounting for the forces known to engineers of that day.
However, rather than building it to that minimum standard, he
engineered six times the required strength into the bridge. The result
is a bridge standing long after many of its lighter contemporaries
have broken up,

Issue 18

When we program, do we put in ‘safety factors’? For instance when we
code, do we consider the following safe

IF(xX=45) GOTO 200

IfXisalwaysan integer, this couldwork. Butifit’s floating point, sometimes
the roundoff can cause problems. A safer way to write this is:

GOTO 200

Often, adding extra code to reconfirm what youalready know makes sense
from a defensive standpoint. Asan example, you know that code passed to
a subroutine will range from 30 to 40; you can check this inline with the
code;

IF
STOP

ROR IN

suB"

While your program runs as expected, these lines are executed normally.
Butifachange elsewhere in your program makes X fall out of range, this line
willcatch itimmediately. Defensive programming lets youfind the problem
now rather than trying to find a bug buried deep in code later.

Another example is mathematical error as with division by zero ora square
root of a negative. This should never happen, but what if it does? As a
sibility, return a wildly invalid result for error checking, or an error
age. Another option is to return an almost correct result, such as a
large number for division by zero:

>0) THEN R=1/X : GOTO 200
a ae | LARGE VALUE HERE
200 normal processing here...

can (and have) been written about defensive programming—the key
is to always question: what if this variable isn't what | think it is—what
next? Then, prepare for what you can, over compensating, as with the
Brooklyn Bridge.

Divide and Conquer

Another interesting chapter of the book deals with divide and
conquer—the binary search, When we look up a number in a phone
book, we would never consider going from the start, and moving page by
page (unless we're trying to find AAA Dry Cleaners) We instead open
to the approximate area where the name should be, then a little
forward or back, narrowing down our search to the correct name. A
binary search is much the same. Rather than guessing where to start
(something computers are notoriously bad at) one easy way is to tell it to
divide the list in half, and then look at that halfway point. Ifit matches,
you're done; if not, then the item (if it’s there at all) is either in the top half
of the list, or the bottom half. Repeatedly subdividing these halves by half
‘ch to one final item, a match (if the item is in
the list) or not (i h check eliminated half the remaining list, so
the number of searches needed is related to the power of two, A 256 item
list can be searched in no more than 8 searches (with a chance of being
shorter than that), and a million items need take no more than 20
ions. The key to this is that the list must be sorted. Since
comparisons let the computer decide which section ofa list to eliminate,
numbers out of place may never be found.

December 1996/January 1997

45

Binary searches, for all their power, are notoriously difficult to program
(lon’s book actually considers the algorithm in three different chapters,
each time refining it). Rather than trying to write your own, here’sa version
for the C64:

BINARY S
300

3ARCH DEMO PROGRAM
RANDOM RS FROM
000 1000
300

1-1000

20 N=300 Lt A FROM
1 TO 1000
100 REM
110 REM TO A(N) FOR U'TEM 1

Lel

M=INT((L+U)/2) : C=C+1

IF (A(M)<T) 4+1 : GOTO 170

IF )>T) GOTO 170

I 190
170 IF
180 PRI 3 NOT IN THE LIST*
GOTO 20
190 PRINT "ITEM" P "IS" T “FOUND IN" C
"TR GOTO 20
1000 RANDOM NUMBERS FROM 1 TO N
1010 R=N + PRI
"RAN

)40

1030
1040 0) THEN GOTO 1020
1070

Lines 1000-1070 create an array of 300 random numbers inorder, running
from 1 to 1000, and print them out. Then the program lets you search for
numbers, telling you if they are in the list or not. As you run it, you'll find
that with 300 numbers, all matches can be found in 9 or fewer comparisons.

To use this code yourself, create an array of dat d call line 100 with
the array size. And of course, make sure array A() is in order.

Random Thoughts

Obviously, I enjoyed the book, Ifyou have the opportunity, get a copy for
yourself, A book like this is an asset for programmers, giving insight into
how others work in our profession, and their ways of thinking about
problems. Even if you don’t program a great deal, it’s an interesting read.

Asa final item, look back at the previous listing, where we needed to
generate random numbers to test the binary se
your hand at that, you know it can be annoying to get it just right. What we
often need is an evenly distributed list of random numbers, with no
duplicates, overa certain range. Lines 1000-1070 do that forus. Wespecify
the range in N, and the array size in X. Although the routine may look odd,
itis perfectly correct.

It would take pages to explain how it works (consult the book
Seminumerical Algorithms by Donald Knuth for proof), but all you need to
know to putitin your programsis here. Itwill generate randomly distributed
numbers from 1 to N, giving you X numbers in order. It can be useful for
games, such as cards, Instead of fiddling with arrays, just ask for 5 cards
from a deck, and you're guaranteed to get them.

ch. Ifyou've ever tried

%)

COMMODORE WORLD

Seis BEAT

by Doug Cotton

While 816 Beat made its Commodore World debut in the Assembly Line
column presented in Issue #17, this time we get our own masthead.
‘Therefore, it seems only fair that we define just what the purpose of this
column is before we move forward.

With the advent of the 65816-based SuperCPU recently released by
CMD, we feel it is important to assist programmers in making a smooth
transition to the powerful capabilities available in this most advanced
member of the 65-family of microprocessors. So the main focus of this
column, at least initially, will be just that: show programmers how to take
tage of that power. We'll also cover programming issues specific to
the SuperCPU, and methods for dealing with this device. In addition, we'll
occasionally present information on some related products that we feel
certain will be of interest to 65816 programmers.

You may wonder just w

find these issues so important, and that’s
a fair enough question. The short answer is that the SuperCPU can provide
additional longevity for Commodore 8-bit computers. But to do that most
effectively requires new software. Providing programmers with useful
information is a key element in making that happen.

Some folks have pointed out that other 65816-based accelerators have
been created forthe Commodorein the past, and don’t understand why the
CMD SuperCPUis ofany moreimportance than these. I thinkit’s fairtosay
that there are several good reasons, In no particular order, here are some
that come immediately to mind:

* Speed: The SuperCPU operates at over double the speed of any
accelerator previously released for the Commodore.

* Compatibility: The wide range of compatibility with both hardware
and software provided by the SuperCPU is unmatched by.

’xpandability: Unlike other accelerators, the SuperCPU offers the

ability to expand system memory to the 65816’s full capacity.

THE GREAT DIVIDE

* 128 Version: While presently in development, the SuperCPU 128
will be the first accelerator ever produced for the 128, giving both
64 and 128 users the ability to enhance system speed.

* NTSC & PAL: It doesn't matter where you live or which video
standard you use, the SuperCPU works.

There are other reasons as well, but I think these are sufficient to
illustrate the point that the SuperCPU has the technical capabilities—and
the distribution—to make it the most widely accepted accelerator ever
produced for the Commodore 8-bit computers, SuperCPU owners have
also identified themselves as users who are willing to pay for products that
extend the capabilities of their computers.

Insimplerterms, 8/6 Beat hasbeen created to help you, asa programmer,
meet the needs of a newly defined market. And that market, in turn, will
grow as more optimized software becomes available for it.

16-bit Division

Ofthe four main mathematical routines that we commonly usein programs,
division is probably the least often used; but when itis, itis without a doubt
acycle-hungry beast in need of tamin; natural candidate
for native 65816 code.

Inthe course of hunting fora division routine to present here, looked at
anumber of reference works containing 6502 division routines. One of the
most extensive of these was an article published several years ago in
Transactor magazine. While most of the resources I checked promoted
repeated subtraction to perform division, the Transactor article correctly
concluded that the subtraction approach is extremely inefficient when
dealing with large numbers, and presented a routine that gave a more flat
performance. While the speed of that routine was indeed quite good, the
division routine presented by Lichty and Eyes in The Western Design

his makes it

65816 Mode Switching Routines

gonaty cle enter 65816 The routines listed here are those you'll need gonaty cle enter 65816
xce native mode most often when working with native code on -byte $fb native mode
the 65816 microprocessor. The routines to
gol6 rep #$30 full 16-bit the left use the standard 65816 mnemonics gols «byte $c2,$30 full 16-bit
and require an assembler which fully supports
goB sep #530 Shit the 65816 instruction set; the routinestothe = go8 -byte $e2,$30 S8-bit
right are equivalent to the routines on the left,
goem sec setemulation but can be used by any standard 6502 goem sec set emulation
xce (6502) mode assembler. «byte $fb (6502) mode

COMMODORE WORLD

46

Issue 18

Center's Software Manual gave a slightly better overall performance (after
fixing a bug in the routine [Thanks go to Jim Brain for coming up with the
bug-fix -Ed.}). The routines presented here, therefore, are based on on the
latter reference, in order to make sure we're starting out with fast routines
to begin with, It may be worth noting that faster division routines are
possible if specialized circumstances are taken into account; however, for

6502 16-bit Division Routine

divide lda #0 (2)

tax (2)

pha (3)

ldy #1 (2)

lda divsor+1 (4)

bmi div2 (3 if taken, 2 if not)
divl iny (2)

asl divsor (6)

rol divsor+1 (6)

bmi diva (3 if taken, 2 if not)

cpy #17 (2)

bne divi (3 if taken, 2 if not)
div2 sec (2)

lda divdnd (4)

sbe divsor (4)

pha (3)

ida divdnd+1 (4)

sbe divsor+1 (4)

bee divi (3 if taken, 2 if not)

sta divdnd+1 (4)

pla (4)

sta divdnd (4)

pha (3)
div3 pla (4)

pla (4)

rol (2)

pha (3)

txa (2)

rol (2)

tax (2)

isr divsor+1 (6)

ror divsor (6)

dey (2)

bne div2 (3 if taken, 2 if not)

pla (4)

sta quotnt (4)

stx quotnt+1 (4)

rts (6)

Givdnd .word 0
divsor .word 0
quotnt .word 0

December 1996/January 1997

47

general purpose 16-bit division, this routine is the fastest overall that I've
seen to date.

Looking at the 65816 version of the code, it provides a savings in time of
around 43 percent. In addition, the 65816 code takes only 42 bytes, versus
72 bytes for the 6502 code (plus 6 bytes of variable data for ea
almost 42 percent. You will, however, lose
some of those gains in entering and leaving 65816 native 16
gonaty and go16 to enter, and exit with goem), if that is necessary in your
particular program, The loss in time is minimal, though, since a single
division often requires several hundred cycles.

provides a code-space savings of

pa

it mode (use

Where Next?

With coverage of all the basic math routine conversions now complete,
we'll take a look at dealing with timing routines in our next installment,
Naturally, whenever we have programs that need to run on different sp
processors, finding a means of producing fixed delay times becomes very
important. Be sure to join us!

65816 16-bit Division Routine

* Denotes changes required for assemblers that
do not support 65816 mnemonics.

divide stz quotnt (5) *replace wi sbyte $9c)
(tadds svord quotnt]
idx divdnd (5)
ida divsor (5)
ldy #1 (3)
divi asl (2)
bes div2 {3 if taken, 2 if not)
iny (2)
epy #17 (3)
{(tadd: sbyte $00]
bne divi (3 if taken, 2 if not)
div2 ror (2)
div4 pha (4)
txa (2)
sec (2)
sbe $01,S (5)
bee div3 (3 if taken, 2 if not)
tax (2)
div3 rol quotnt (8)
pla (5)
Isr (2)
dey (2)
bne diva (3 if taken, 2 if not)
stx divdnd (5)
rts (6)
divdnd .word 0
divsor .word 0
quotnt .word 0

COMMODORE WORLD

* CLASSIFIED

C64/128 PUBLIC DOMAI

ADVERTISERS
INDEX

Caloke Industries

Commodore Country

Computer Power User

Commodore World.......5,29,33,Inside Back Cover
Computer Bargain Store ....

Creative Micro Designs. ... 24-25,35,39,48
Genie... Inside Front Cover
J.P. Products by Mail .

Loadstar

Parsec...

Paxtron..

Perfect Tax

Phoenix 64

Tech Star ....

0710 Brut
COMP
inoues. s i

FOR SALE: Cardco nun

ChAD Service Center

AFFORDABLE ¢ FAST « DEPENDABLE
Call Today 1-800-638-3263

Our Team of Technicians are Among the
Most Qualified in the Industry!
Why Settle for Anything Less Than the Best?

We repair the following equipment: Commodore C-64, 64C, SX-64, C-128
and C128-D computers; 1541, 1541C, 1571 and 1581 Disk Drives plus
CMD Devices. JiffyDOS Installations a specialty. All repairs warranted for
30 days. Minimum charge $35.00 plus parts and return shipping. You must
contact CMD for authorization before sending any equipment.

Creative Micro Designs, Inc. P.O, Box 646 E. Longmeadow, MA 01028

Don’t wait until it’s too late... Ly!

Is your Commodore World subscription close to

running out? Here's an easy way to check: look at the mailing label on the
front of your copy. You'll find your subscription number and the expiration
issue number. For example:

Don’t forget to
COMMODORE WORLD!

Please call or write with your change of
address 6 to 8 weeks prior to your move so
that you won't miss a single issue!

CW Address Change, P.O. Box 646,

E, Longmeadow, MA 01028
413-525-0023

COMMODORE WORLD
Classified Advertising Policy

Commodore Worldsubscribers may place non-commercial
classified advertising in Commodore World at a cost of
$10.00 per issue. Your advertisement may contain up to
150 characters (including spaces). Commercial classified
ads are charged at a rate of $10 per line. Send your
advertisement with paymentto: CW Classified Advertising,
c/o Creative Micro Designs, Inc., P.O. Box 646, East
Longmeadow MA 01028-0646.

Jim's subscription will run out with Issue 17 as indicated by the
EXP17 in his subscription code. Jim would be wise to re-subscribe
early to avoid missing a single issue of Commodore World!

COMMODORE WORLD 48 Issue 18

Shatter ny.
the 1MHz/ >

Barren

What will the SuperCPU do for me?

Programs will suddenly spring to life—screens and menus
pop up instantly, scrolling becomes fluid, and graphics fly. A
C-64 equipped with the SuperCPU is like having a
Volkswagen with a V-8. There's one small exception—the
SuperCPU rides much smoother. Even though the SuperCPU
gives your computer a radical increase in horsepower (up to
22 times faster), its operating system makes that power
usable by maintaining compatibility with most existing
software and making its operation transparent to the user.

Looking to the future, the powerful 65816 microprocessor gives
programmers vast new resources to create powerful and
sophisticated software, With its 16-bit registers, up to 16 MB of
system memory, and 6502/6510/8502 emulation, the
SuperCPU makes it easy to enhance existing software as well
as providing the power to create Internet browsers, animation
and other high-tech applications! The SuperCPU provides a
bright future for a new generation of Commodore computing,

So join the Commodore revolution and order a powerful new
SuperCPU TODAY!

SurenCPu St+ $199.00*
SvurenCPu 128 $299, oo**

* Plus Shipping: US $10 / AK,HI,PF
Deposits being accepted no

Ultra Fast * Compatible + Easy-to-use

High-Speed microprocessor, 128K fast RAM, advanced
hardware logic, and up to 512K ROM enable you to run all
types of existing commercial software at speeds up to 22
times faster than stock machines.

BASIC programs, including most Bulletin Board Systems,
seem to run as fast as machine language, and compiled
BASIC programs run faster than ever!

Commercial machine language programs (databases,
spreadsheets, word processors, telecommunications,
graphics, etc.) run so fast that you'll think your running
them on another computer!

GEOS comes alive—No typing or scrolling delays, graphic
operations happen instantly, faster printing and disk
access! Includes enhanced GEOS setup utility!

Easy-to-use: Plug it into your cartridge port and start
working—no messy cables or special adjustments.
Built-in JiffyDOS Kernal boosts disk access speed up to
15x faster with JiffyDOS equipped drives.

Pass-thru port provides compatibility with RAMLink,
SwiftLink, GEORAM, 17xx REU's and other cartridges.

Unit Enable/Disable, JiffyYOOS On/Off, Normal/Turbo
Speed, and Reset switches make using the SuperCPU a
snap. An internal connecector simplifies future expansion.

NEWS FLASH:

14.4/28.8 MODEMS
NOW OBSOLETE!

The quest for faster internet access has made 33.6K modems the
new standard, with 57.6K modems not far behind. SwiftLink and other
first generation interfaces simply can’t keep up—putting your
Commodore in the slow lane on the Information Superhighway!

The all-new Turbo232 has been Creative Micro Designed to keep
pace with the explosion in telecommunications technology!

° High-Speed Support Turbo232
keeps up with today’s fastest
modems, offering speeds up to

230Kbps
he i M f
Tufo C232 © Easy-to-use! Turbo232 simply
HIGH SPEED MODEM INTERFACE i plugs into the expansion port and

connects to almost any external
Hayes-compatible RS-232 modem

° SwiftLink Compatible Turbo232
has been designed to work with
programs written for SwiftLink

© Easy Configuration Turbo232
has easy-to-configure jumpers for
users with special requirements

BOCAMODEM \

one eee @ @
7M AA HS OH SD AD TR CD

Woedenis: 300, 1200, 2400, 9600, 14.4K, 28.8K, eee
33/6K and 57,6K
Baud Rates: 150, 219,84, 269.16, 300, 600, 1200,

2400, 8600, 4800, 7200, 9600, 14.41,
19,2K, 38,4K, 57.6K, 115.2k, 2c0,4k ° Null Transfers May also be used

Jumpers: 1/O Page ($DF/$DE), Interrupts: NMI/ as a null modem interface for
IRQ, DSR Enable/Disable fast data transfers with other
Connector DB-9) Male (AT-style) computers (i.e. PC, Mac, Amiga)

To order call: Turbo232 (Includes Novalei 9:6 Lite) 639%
Modem Cable (DB9-25) *

1-800- 638-3263 Turbo232 w/Novaterm 9) a 765"

(Mon.-Fri, 9a.m.-Sp.m. EST) Turbo w/Modem 33,6 & Cable 199%

Turbo w/Modem 33,6, Cable & Novaterm 9,6 224%

St